362 NORTH AMEIIICAX -lilRDS. 



notes change to to-vliit-to-irJtoo, and sometimes to a soft, simple chirp, whis- 

 l)ered so gently as scarcely to he audible. The name of Whip-tom-kelly 

 Mr. Gosse never heard ap})lied to it in rJamaica. Yet it is a bird often heard, 

 and one whose notes have a similarity to articuhite sounds, and naturally 

 suggest a conunon appellation. It is very vociierous and i)ertinacious in its 

 calls, re})eating them witli energy every two or three seconds. 



This species, he states, does not ordinarily sit on a ])romineiit twig, or dart 

 out after insects, though it has l>een seen in eager pur-suit of a butterfly. It 

 seems to live in the centre of thick woods. It does not pass the winter in 

 Jamaica, but leaves at tiie begiiniing of October, returning as early as the 

 2(>th of March. lis foitd he states to be both animal and vegetable, as he 

 found in its stomach the seeds of the tropical plants and berries. In April, 

 jNIr. Gosse observed it huntinir insects 1)V the borders of the Bluetields IJiver, 

 and so intent u])on its occupation as to aUow of a very near approach. It 

 sought insects among tlie grass and low herbage, perching on the stalks of 

 weeds, and darting out after both vagrant and stationary prey. They incu- 

 bate in June and July. 



Like all this genus tlie Long-billed Vireo builds a pensile nest of great 

 architectural ingenuity and beauty. It is a deep cup, usually about two 

 thirds of a sphere in shape, truncated at the top. The materials of which 

 it is made are often somewhat coai-se. Mr. (iosse describes it as about as 

 large as an onlinary teacup), narrowed at the mouth, composed of dry grasses, 

 silk, cotton, lichens, and spiders'-web. It is usually suspended from the fork 

 of two twigs, the margin very neatly overwoven to embrace them. The 

 materials are well interwoven, and the walls firm and close, though not very 

 thick. The whole is smoothly lined with slender veiietable fibres resemblimi 

 human hair. One nest had its cavity nearly filled with a mass of white cot- 

 ton, interwoven with the other materials, which, being picked cotton, had 

 evidently been taken from some yard or building. 



The eggs of this species are three in number, of a brilliant white, deli- 

 cately tinted with j)ink, and marked with a few fine red and red-brown 

 spots, usually about the larger end. ^ 



An egg of the variety from Cuba is of an oblong-oval shape, slightly 

 pointed at one end, and the markings of laint purple and of dark purplish- 

 brown, in bold daslies, are all about the larger end. Another from the same 

 locality is more distinctly rounded at one and pointed at the other end, and 

 is marked with fine l)rown dots distributed over the whole egg. Tliese eggs 

 measure, one .825 by .5') of an inch, and the other .78 by .55. An egg from 

 Jamaica is of an extremely oblong-oval, measuring .88 by .55 of an inch, and 

 is boldly marked more or less over the entire egg witli large blotches of pur- 

 plish-brown. 



The Messrs. Xewton describe the nest of the rah'dris of St. Croix as a beau- 

 tiful structure, shaj)ed like an inverted cone, composed outwardly of dried 

 blades of grass, dried leaves, and wool, woven round the twigs, to which it 



