354 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



The height of the breeding season is about the first week of June. 

 The bird is an abundant summer resident from Kansas to Southeastern 

 Texas. In Kansas it begins laying the last of May. Mr. Edwin C. 

 Davis states that the favorite nesting places of this species in Northern 

 Texas are well shaded orchards and the north side of osage-orange 

 hedges. The nest seems to be the favorite receptacle for tke eggs of 

 the Cowbird, and rarely is a nest found without one or more eggs of 

 this parasite. Mr. Davis observes that he has never found a young 

 Cowbird in the Vireo's nest, which suggests the probability that the 

 eggs are disposed of by the parent birds in some manner. The nest is 

 a neat, cup-shaped structure, suspended by the brim in slender, forked 

 twigs of a bush or small tree. It is compact and smooth, made of fine 

 "bark strips and strong, flax-like fibres of different plants, lined with 

 fine grasses, feathers and down, rootlets and hair. 



The usual number of eggs is four. According to Mr. William 

 Lloyd, this species rears two broods in a season in Western Texas, nest- 

 ing from May i to July 3, and the average clutch of eggs is six. He 

 lias taken sets of five, six, and two of eight eggs each. They are white, 

 sparingly dotted with dark umber-brown around the larger end. Six 

 eggs measure .69X.5O, .7ox.5o, .;ox.5o, -72x.5i, .73X.5O, .68x47. 



6330. Vireo belli! pusillus (COUES) [146.] 



Least Vireo. 



Hab. Southern and Central California, Lower California and Arizona. 



This bird occurs in Arizona, chiefly its lower portion, and Califor- 

 nia, from Sacramento to Cape St. Lucas. Its habits correspond closely 

 with those of Bell's Vireo. Mr. Scott found it common in the Catalina 

 Mountains of Arizona, arriving about the 25th of March, and are ap- 

 parently mated at that time, as they proceed to build nests and lay eggs, 

 the latter commonly three in number. Nests from Arizona are de- 

 scribed as substantially like those of the former species. 



The eggs measure about .69 x .48, and are of crystalline whiteness, 

 speckled with red and reddish-brown, the markings being very minute 

 and scarcely discernible in some cases, in others larger and more 



distinct. 



634. Vireo vicinior COUES. [147-] 



Gray Vireo. 



Hab. Northwestern Mexico, Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. 



A very limited number of specimens of the Arizona or Gray 

 Vireo had been procured since its discovery and description by Dr. 

 Coues in 1866, and the species was considered rare until Mr. W. B. D. 

 Scott, in 1884, found it to be fairly abundant on the mesas and foot- 

 Mils of the San Pedro slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains, in Final 



