THE WHITE-EYED VIREO. 275 



selected a blade of grass. Returning by the same route, they 

 moved so slowly from one tree to another, that my patience was 

 severely tried. Two other days were consumed in travelling for 

 the same kind of grass. On the seventh, I saw only the female at 

 work, using wood and horsehair : the eighth was almost entirely 

 spent by both in smoothing the inside. They would enter the nest, 

 sit in it, turn round, and press the lining. In the course of five 

 days, an equal number of eggs were laid: they were' small, of a 

 rather narrow oval form, white, thinly spotted with reddish-black 

 at the larger end. The birds sat alternately, though not with regu- 

 larity as to time ; and, on the twelfth day of incubation, the young 

 came out. I observed that the male would bring insects to the 

 female, and that, after chopping and macerating them with her 

 beak, she placed them in the mouth of her young with a care 

 and delicacy which were not less curious than pleasing to me." 



This account is so full and complete that I can add noth- 

 ing to the history of the breeding habits of this bird. But 

 one brood is reared in the season in this latitude. The 

 dimensions of four eggs in my collection from different 

 localities are .83 by .56 inch, .80 by .56 inch, .78 by .54 

 inch, .78 by .53 inch. These will be found to be the aver- 

 age size of this species. The nest is about three inches in 

 exterior diameter, and about two and a half in depth. 



VIREO NOVEBORACENSIS. Bonaparte. 

 The White-eyed Vireo. 



Muscicapa Noveboracensis, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 947. 

 Vireo Noveboracensis, Bonaparte. Obs. Wils. (1825), No. 122. Aud. Orn. Biog., 

 I. (1831) 328; V. 431, 433; Birds Am., IV. (1842) 146; Nutt. Man., I. (1832) 306. 

 Muscicapa cantatrix, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 266. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Spurious primary about half the second, which is about equal to the eighth quill ; 

 entire upper parts bright olivaceous-green; space around the eyes and extending 

 to the bill greenish-yellow, interrupted by a dusky spot from the anterior canthus to 

 the base of the gape ; beneath white ; the sides of the breast and body well denned, 

 almost gamboge-yellow; edges of greater and middle wing coverts (forming two 

 bands) and of inner tertiaries greenish-yellow white; iris white. 



Length, five inches; wing, two and fifty one-hundredths. 



