254: THE WHITE-EYED VIREO. 



bark of the white birch, being lined with fine dried grasses. 

 The four eggs, fresh the 7th of June, about .78 x -56 as 

 long and pointed as any Vireo's egg are pure white, 

 sparsely specked with reddish-brown, mostly at the large 

 end the specks looking as if they had been put on when 

 the shell was soft, and so had run a little. 



Keeping to the forest, and exceedingly solitary and retiring 

 in its habits, this bird ranges nearly throughout North 

 America, and winters in the more tropical regions. Mr. 

 Wagner reports the species as breeding very common in 

 New Canada, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, the female 

 adhering most persistently to her nest, and defending it 

 very bravely on leaving it. 



THE WHITE-EYED VIREO. 



The White-eyed Vireo (Vireo noveboracensis), "noted for 

 its sprightly manners and emphatic voice," is but seldom 

 found here. Mr. Ringueberg, of Lockport, has found it 

 breeding near that city. The nest, now before me, is almost 

 precisely like that of the Red-eye; built externally with 

 fibers of bark, interlaced with webby material, lined with 

 something brown, which appears to me to be the finest shreds 

 of the bark of the wild grape-vine. The nest has one pecul- 

 iar mark, however. It is well ornamented with bits of 

 newspaper, in addition to the dried leaves, bits of wasps' 

 nests, and "paper-like capsules of the spiders' nests," so 

 common to the nests of the Vireo; and thus the bird main- 

 tains its right to the name of Politician, given it by Wilson. 

 This nest was in a bush in a small thicket. The single egg 

 it contained was very similar to the egg of the Red-eye, but 

 smaller, and the fine specks on the pure white ground, black 

 or nearly so. 



The bird is 5 inches long; olive-green above, the wings 



