VIREOXID.K — Till-: VIREOS. 381 



with mosses and lichens, and tlms niiule to cnntonn elosclv in appeamnce to 

 the ni<»ss-j;To\vn Itaik ot" the tree. Tiie under portion of the nest is stren;.'th- 

 ened by h)nj; strips of the inner hark of th«' wihl j^nape. AVitliin is an 

 inner nest made of tine j^nissy steins and hark. It forms exaetly a half- 

 sphere in shaj)e, is symmetrieal, and is very thorou^dily made. Its diameter 

 is four, an»l its height t\v«» and one fourth inelies. 



Mr. Nuttall de.serihes a nest nf this hird, found hy him susjiended from the 

 forked twijj^ of an oak, near a dwell in_!.i-house, as coated over with j^^reen 

 lichens, attached very artfully hy a slender stvinjj; of cater})illars' silk, the 

 whole afterwards tied over hv almost invisihle threads of the same, so nicelv 

 done as to aj)i)ear to 1)e .irlued on. The whole fahric was thus made to re- 

 send.)le an accidental knot of the tree, ^rown o\er with moss. Another nest, 

 observed by the same writer, was fixed on the de])endinLj branches of a wild 

 cherry, and wjis fifty feet from the jjjround. So lofty a i»osition as this is 

 probably very unusual. I have never met with any higher than ten feet 

 from the ground. 



The food of this Vireo is chiefly insects, and in the l)reeding-scason is 

 altoLjether so. Later in the season thev nun<de with these various kinds of 

 small berries. 



The eggs of this species vary from .95 to .SS of an inr'h in length, and 

 from .65 to .00 in l)readth. Their ground-color is white, often with a verv 

 perceptible tint of roseate when fresh. In this respect they differ in a very 

 marked manner from the eggs of any other of this genus, except, perhaps, 

 the hnrhatvla, and may thus always be very easily recognized. They are 

 more or less boldly marked with blotches of a dark roseate-brown, also pe- 

 culiar to the eggs of this species, though varying greatly in their size and 

 depth of color. 



This Vireo winters, in great numbers, in Central America, and was largely 

 represented in the collection of Dr. Van Patten from (Juatemala. It was 

 also found at Pirico, in Colombia, South America, by Mr. C. W. AVyatt. 

 It occurs in abundance as far to the west as (Irinnell, Iowa, where Mr. 

 W. H. Parker found it to be a very common summer resident. 



