•2y6 Vy-RKWSTKK, Notes on t/tc P/iiladclp/iia Vi'reo. \oa 



.54 (one hundredths of an inch). They are elongate ovate in shape 

 and pure white, sparsely spotted with burnt umber, chocolate and 

 dull black. Most of the markings are small and rounded while 

 many of them are mere specks. On two of the eggs they are 

 rather generally distributed save about the smaller ends which are 

 immaculate, but on the third egg they are practically confined to 

 the larger end. All three eggs resemble most closely those of the 

 Red-eyed Vireo but they are decidedly smaller than average eggs 

 of that bird, while in respect to shape they are unlike any Vireo's 

 eggs in my collection, a peculiarity which is not likely to prove 

 constant, however. Many of my Red-eye's eggs have similarly 

 clear white shells, but all the eggs of the Warbling Vireo, in my col- 

 lection, are more or less strongly tinged with cream color, and with 

 most of them the dark markings are blacker and somew-hat coarser 

 than in these eggs of V. philadelphicus. 



As I have already said, the Philadelphia Vireo's nest found in 

 Manitoba by Mr. Seton was only about eight feet above the ground, 

 in a small willow, while that which I took at Lake Umbagog was 

 at a height of fully thirty feet in a well-grown aspen. Which of 

 these two situations comes the nearer to being the usual or typical 

 one cannot be settled, of course, on the basis of evidence so scanty 

 and conflicting as that above mentioned. No doubt the nest will 

 be found to vary considerably in position — as well as details of 

 construction — in different regions or even with different birds in 

 the same region ; but I am now inclined to believe (although with 

 Dr. Dwight I have hitherto had a directly opposite impression) 

 that in northern New England, at least, it will prove to be ordi- 

 narily built, like that of the Warbling Vireo, in the tops or among 

 the upper branches of good-sized trees. If this be so it is no 

 longer difficult to understand why those of us who have spent sea- 

 son after season in places where the Philadelphia Vireo breeds 

 rather numerously have looked in vain for its nest in thickets or 

 anions: the lower branches of the trees. 



