NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 353 



eggs. They were placed, one in a Negundo^ thirty feet high, the other 

 at the extremity of an oak limb, twenty-five feet from the ground."* 



Mr. Walter E. Bryant notes a pair of these Vireos (observed by C. 

 W. Knox) which built in the outer branches of a live oak, only a few 

 feet above the exhaust pipe from a steam pump, where at times they 

 were compelled to suspend work, owing to the dense vapor which 

 enveloped them. Four eggs were laid in this nest. 



632a. Vireo huttoni stephensi Brewst. 



Stephens's Vireo. 



Hab. Mexico, western portion of Texas, Mew Mexico, Arizona and Lower California. 



This new race was first described b}^ Mr. William Brewster, from 

 specimens collected by Mr. F. Stephens in the Chiricahau and Santa 

 Rita Mountains, Arizona. It is stated that he also took its nest and 

 eggs near Fort Bayard, New Mexico, in 1876, but there appears to be 

 no published account ot them. Capt. Charles E. Bendire describes a 

 nest of this bird containing three fresh eggs, taken by Lieut. Benson on 

 June 21, 1887, near Fort Huachuca, Arizona, which are now in the Na- 

 tional Museum, f The nest was attached to the fork of a small twig of 

 some species of buttonwood, growing in a canon of the Huachuca Moun- 

 tains, and was well concealed. It is very peculiar looking, being 

 outwardly exclusively composed of a yellowish-buff plant down, with 

 similarly colored grass-tops incorporated, giving the nest a uniform light 

 color, not unlike a very fine cup-shaped sponge. It is lined with the ex- 

 treme tops of grasses, also of a golden tint, and measures externally two 

 and three-fourth inches in width by two and one-half inches in depth. 

 The inner diameter is two inches by one and three-fourth inches. The 

 three eggs are ovate in shape, pure white in color, with little gloss, 

 sparsely spotted about the larger end, with fine dots of dark urriber- 

 brown and brownish-red; sizes .72X.53, .70X.52, .69X.52. 



633. Vireo bellii Aud. [145.] 



Bell's Vireo. 



Hab. Middle districts of the United States, from Illinois and Iowa west to the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains, south in winter to South^n Mexico. 



Bell's Vireo is a common bird in the interior districts of United 

 States, as far west as the Rocky Mountains. It breeds in a great portion 

 of the Mississippi Valley, from Dakota and Minnesota southward. 

 Messrs. Keyes and Williams give it as a common summer resident of 

 Iowa, where it is perhaps the most familiar bird of its genus. Hejre, 

 Mr. Iv. Jones informs me, it frequents the brush fringing the woods or 

 roadsides, where it attaches its nest to the twigs of the hazel bush. 



*Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, III, p. 68. 



t Notes on a Collection of Birds' Nests and Eggs from Southern Arizona Territory. By Capt. 

 Charles E. Bendire, U. S. A, Proceedings of the National Museum, 1887, pp. 856-657. 



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