118 NORTH CAROLINA 



its own peculiar value, or to wait the re- 

 sult of absolute familiarity. My stay of 

 three weeks gave me neither one thing nor 

 another ; it was long enough to dissipate my 

 first feeling of certainty, but not long enough 

 to yield a revised and settled judgment. 



The mountain vireo ( Vireo solitarius 

 alticola), like the Carolina snowbird, may 

 properly be called a native of Highlands ; 

 and, like the snowbird, it proved to be com- 

 mon. My first sight of it was in the hotel 

 yard, but I found it single pairs every- 

 where. A look at the feathers of the back 

 through an opera-glass showed at once the 

 principal distinction apart from a supe- 

 riority in size, not perceptible at a distance 

 on which its subspecific identity is based ; 

 but though to its original describer its song 

 sounded very much finer than the northern 

 bird's, I could not bring myself to the same 

 conclusion. I should never have remarked 

 in it anything out of the common. Once, 

 to be sure, I heard notes which led me to 

 say, " There ! that voice is more like a 

 yellow-throat's, fuller and rounder than 

 a typical solitary's ; " but that might have 

 happened anywhere, and at all other times ; 



