NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 425 



633. BELL'S VIREO. Vireo bellii Aud. Geog. Dist. Middle districts of the 

 United States, from Illinois and Iowa west to the eastern slope of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, south in winter to Southern Mexico. 



Bell's Vireo is a common bird in the interior districts of United States, as far 

 west as the Rocky Mountains. It breeds in a great portion of the Mississippi Valley, 

 from Dakota and Minnesota southward. Messrs. Keyes and Williams give it as a 

 common summer resident of Iowa, where it is perhaps the most familiar bird of its 

 genus. Here Mr. L. Jones informs me, it frequents the brush fringing the woods 

 or roadsides, where it attaches its nest to the twigs of the hazel bush. The height 

 of the breeding season is about the first week of June. The bird is an abundant 

 summer resident from Kansas to Southeastern Texas. In Kansas it begins laying 

 the last of May. Mr. Edwin C. Davis states that the favorite nesting places of this 

 species in Northern Texas are well shaded orchards and the north side of osage- 

 orange hedges. The nest seems to be the favorite receptacle for the eggs of the 

 Cowbird, and rarely is a nest found without one or more eggs of this parasite. Mr. 

 Davis observes that he has never found a young Cowbird in the Vireo's nest, which 

 suggests the probability that the eggs are disposed of by the parent birds in some 

 manner. The nest is a neat, cup-shaped structure, suspended by the brim in slender, 

 forked twigs of a bush or small tree. It is compact and smooth, made of fine bark 

 strips and strong, flax-like fibres of different plants, lined with fine grasses, feathers 

 and down, rootlets and hair. The usual number of eggs is four. According to Mr. 

 William Lloyd, this species rears two broods in a season in Western Texas, nesting 

 from May 1 to July 3, and the average clutch of eggs is six. He has taken sets of 

 five, six, and two of eight eggs each. They are white, sparingly dotted with dark 

 umber-brown around the larger end. Six eggs measure .69x.50, .70x.50, .70x.50, .72x 

 .51, .73x.50, .68x.47 inches. 



633a. LEAST VIREO. Vireo bellii pusillus (Coues.) Geog. Dist. Southern and 

 Central California, Lower California and Arizona. 



This bird occurs in Arizona, chiefly its lower portion, and California, from Sac- 

 ramento to Cape St. Lucas. Its habits correspond closely with those of Bell's Vireo. 

 Mr. Scott found it common in the Catalina Mountains of Arizona, arriving about the 

 25th of March, and apparently mated at that time, as they proceed to build nests 

 and lay eggs, the latter commonly three in number. Nests from Arizona are de- 

 scribed as substantially like those of the former species. The eggs measure about 

 .69x.48, and are of crystalline whiteness, speckled with red and reddish-brown, the 

 markings being very minute and scarcely discernible in some cases, in others larger 

 and more distinct. 



634. GRAY VIREO. Vireo vicinior Coues. Geog. Dist. Northwestern Mexico, 

 Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. 



A very limited number of specimens of the Arizona or Gray Vireo had been 

 procured since its discovery and description by Dr. Coues in 1866, and the species was 

 considered rare until Mr. W. E. D. Scott, in 1884, found it to be fairly abundant on 

 the mesas and foothills of the San Pedro slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains, in 

 Final county, Arizona. The limits of its distribution while breeding, were bctv/ccn 

 the altitudes of 2800 and 4000 feet, and the locality where it was found most abundant 

 is where the mesquites terminate and the oaks begin. The smooth, flat mesas, and 

 the broad, open bottoms of the wilder canon are quite as much frequented by il 

 the rough and broken hillsides. The bird is exceedingly active, rapidly 



