THE WHITE-EYED VIREO. 275 
sélected a blade of grass. Returning by the same route, they 
moved so slowly from one tree to another, that my patience was 
severely tried. ‘Two other days were consumed in travelling for 
the same kind of grass. On the seventh, I saw only the female at 
work, using wood and horsehair: the eighth was almost entirely 
spent by both in smoothing the inside. They would enter the nest, 
sit in it, turn round, and press the lining. In the course of five 
days, an equal number of eggs were laid: they were small, of a 
rather narrow oval form, white, thinly spotted with reddish-black 
at the larger end. The birds sat alternately, though not with regu- 
larity as to time; and, on the twelfth day of incubation, the young 
came out. I observed that the male would bring insects to the 
female, and that, after chopping and macerating them with her 
beak, she placed them in the mouth of her young with a care 
and delicacy which were not less curious than pleasing to me.” 
This account is so full and complete that I can add noth- 
ing to the history of the breeding habits of this bird. But 
one brood is reared in the season in this latitude. The 
dimensions of four eggs in my collection from different 
localities are .83 by .56 inch, .80 by .56 inch, .78 by .54 
inch, .78 by .53 inch. These will be found to be the aver- 
age size of this species. The nest is about three inches in 
exterior diameter, and about two and a half in depth. 
VIREO NOVEBORACENSIS. — Bonaparte. 
The White-eyed Vireo. 
Muscicapa Noveboracensis, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 947. 
Vireo Noveboracensis, Bonaparte. Obs. Wils. (1825), No. 122. Aud. Orn. Biog., 
I. (1831) 828; V. 431, 483; Birds Am., IV. (1842) 146; Nutt. Man., I. (1832) 306. 
Muscicapa cantatrix, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 266. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Spurious primary. about half the second, which is about equal to the eighth quill; 
entire upper parts bright olivaceous-green; space around the eyes and extending 
vo the bill greenish-yellow, interrupted by a dusky spot from the anterior canthus to 
the base of the gape; beneath white; the sides of the breast and body well defined, 
almost gamboge-yellow; edges of greater and middle wing coverts (forming two 
bands) and of inner tertiaries greenish-yellow white; iris white. 
Length, five inches; wing, two and fifty one-hundredths. 
