156 LAND-BIRDS. 



a. About 5 1 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 generally 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 Vireo ; but they are much less 

 common here, for in the breeding season the southern limit of 

 their range is about the northern limit of the latter's. They 

 are common summer residents throughout northern New Eng- 

 land, inhabiting there the woodland strictly, but as such are 

 very rare in Massachusetts. Indeed, some ornithologists have 

 expressed doubt as to their actually breeding here, but I have 

 found their nest near Boston, f and have seen, with the bird 



less sparingly and locally in eastern same season. Thus I have found full 



Massachusetts, plentifully in some of sets of eggs before the close of May, 



the higher portions of Worcester Coun- and on other occasions have watched 



ty, sparingly again in Berkshire Coun- birds which did not begin building 



ty. In northern New England its breed- until the middle of June. W. B. 



ing distribution is rather more general t The Solitary Vireo now nests reg- 



and uniform, but it is nowhere very ularly and quite commonly at certain 



numerous. W. B. localities in Milton and Canton only a 



* The date of nesting of this species few miles distant from Mr. Minot's 



varies greatly in different seasons and former home. W. B. 

 perhaps with different pairs during the 



