348 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Trusting that the exodus was only local and temporary, we watched 

 for the return of the birds with interest. 



The species evidently overlooked its Hamilton connection in 1886, 

 but it has since then been as common as formerly, watching silently 

 near the roadside for its favorite fare of beetles, mice, or small birds, 

 It is very common in the west, going as far north as Manitoba. In 

 the east it seems more rare, Mr. White not having yet observed 

 it at Ottawa, though he has looked for it during several seasons. 



FAMILY YIREONID^E. VIREOS. 



GENUS VIREO YIEILLOT. 



SUBGENUS VIREOSYLVA BONAPARTE. 



VIREO OLIVACEUS (LiNN.). 



256. Red-eyed Vireo. (624) 



Above, olive-green ; crown, ash, edged 011 each side with a blackish line, 

 below this a white superciliary line, below this again a dusky stripe through 

 the eye ; under parts, white, faintly shaded with olive along sides, and tinged 

 with olive on under wing and tail coverts ; wings and tail, dusky, edged with 

 olive outside, with Whitish inside ; bill, dusky, pale below ; feet, leaden olive ; 

 eyes, red ; no spurious quill. Length, 5f-6^ ; wing, 3^-3^ ; tail, 2^-2^ ; bill, 

 about ; tarsus, |. 



HAB. Eastern North America, to the Rocky Mountains, north to the 

 Arctic Regions. 



Nest, pensile, fastened by the rim to a horizontal fork, ten to twenty-five 

 feet from the ground ; a thin light structure, composed of bark strips, pine 

 needles, wasp's nest, paper and fine grass, felted and apparently pasted 

 together. 



Eggs, three to five, pure white, marked with fine dark reddish-brown spots 

 toward the larger end. 



A very common summer resident is the Red-eyed Vireo, and his 

 loud, clear notes are heard in the outskirts of the woods at all hours 

 of the day. Even during the sultry month of July, when most other 

 songsters sing only in the morning or evening, the Red-eye keeps on 

 all day with tireless energy. In Ontario it is the most numerous- 

 species of the family, arriving early in May and leaving in September. 

 In the early part of the season its food consists entirely of insects, 

 which it is at all times ready to capture, either on the wing or 

 otherwise. In the fall it partakes of raspberries, and the berries of 

 the poke weed and of other wild plants, with the juice of which its 



