152 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



not gregarious, but are extremely affectionate toward one an- 

 other, and peaceable in their relations to other birds. They 

 are very musical, and warble cheerfully, energetically, and often 

 very sweetly. They build small, cup-shaped, pensile nests, 

 which are rarely softly lined. The eggs are four or five, and 

 pure white, with a few small spots near the larger end, of some 

 shade of brown. 



Our species have been divided into several subgenera, but I 

 have here followed Dr. Coues in uniting them under one genus. 



I. VIREO 



(A) SOLITARIUS. Solitary Vireo. Blue-headed Vireo. 



(Rather rare in Massachusetts, especially as a summer-resi- 

 dent.) 



(a). About 5^ inches long. Olive-green above, and white 

 beneath. Head, bluish-ash ; eye-ring, and line to bill, white. 

 Sides olive-shaded. Wing- and tail-feathers white-edged, and 

 wings white-barred. 



(b). The nest of the Solitary Vireo is open and pensile, like 

 those of the other vireos. It is placed, never far from the 

 ground, in the fork of a horizontal branch, always in the woods, 

 and sometimes in swampy ones. It is usually larger, and more 

 loosely constructed of somewhat finer materials, than that of 

 the "Red-eye" (c). One, now lying before me, is composed 

 chiefly of thin strips of pliable bark, is lined with fine grasses 

 and a very few roots, and is somewhat ornamented outwardly 

 with plant-down, lichens, and bits of dead leaves. Audubon 

 speaks of others as being lined with hairs, which I have never 

 known to be the case. In Massachusetts, three or four eggs 

 are laid in the first week in June. They average *77 X '58 of 

 an inch, and are pure white, with a very few minute and gener- 

 ally reddish-brown spots principally at the larger end. 



(c) . The Solitary Vireos are less well known than our other 

 vireos, since they are more given to solitude, and never fre- 

 quent the immediate neighborhood of man. In this respect 

 they resemble the White-eyed Vireos, but are much less com- 

 mon here, for in the breeding-season the southern limit of 



