278 ORNITHOLOGY AND OQfLOGY. 



October. But little is known of the habits of this bird, as 

 it prefers the deep woods and swarnps to the more open dis- 

 tricts. 



VIEEO FLAVIFEONS. Vleillot. 

 The Yellow-throated Vireo. 



PIreo flarifraRt, VieilloL Ois. Am., I. (1807) 85. Aud. Orn. Biog., n. (1834! 

 119; V. 428. 76., Syn. Ib., Birds Am., IV. (1842) 141. 

 Muscicapa sylvicola, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 117. 



DESCRIPTION. 



No spurious quill ; the first and fourth equal ; from bill to middle of back, sides 

 of head, neck, and fore part of breast olive-green ; beneath, from bill to middle of 

 belly, with a ring round the eyes, sulphur-yellow; lores dusky; rest of under parts 

 white ; of upper, ashy-blue, tinged with green ; two white bands on the wing ; ter- 

 tiaries edged with white, other quills with greenish ; outer tail feathers edged with 

 yellowish-white ; the outer web of first feather entirely of this color, except near 

 the end. 



Length, nearly six inches ; wing, three and twenty one-hundredths. 



This beautiful Yireo is not very common in New England, 

 although it is found in all these States as a summer visitor. 

 It arrives from the South about the tenth of May, sometimes 

 not earlier than the fifteenth, and commences building 

 about the first or second week in June. The nest is placed 

 in a small fork of a tree, usually the apple-tree, at a height 

 of about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. It is the 

 most beautiful nest made by birds of this genus : it is built 

 of nearly the same materials as the others, but is covered in 

 the most tasty manner with pieces of lichens and caterpil- 

 lars' silk and spiders' webs, which are plastered or aggluti- 

 nated on over the entire surface, giving the nest the 

 appearance of a large bunch of moss hanging from a forked 

 twig. Several of these nests, collected in different locali- 

 ties, are in my collection. They are invariably of this 

 description, and are all lined with pieces of paper, wasps' 

 nest, and fine grasses. With the exception of the nest of the 

 Humming-bird, and perhaps two or three of the Warblers, 

 the nest of this species is the most beautiful specimen of 



