BULLETIN 



OF THE 



NUTTALL OENITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Vol. V. JANUARY, 1880. No. i. 



NOTES ON THE HABITS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE 

 PHILADELPHIA VIREO (VIREO PHILADELPHICUS). 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



The type specimen of this interesting little Vireo was obtained 

 near Philadelphia, by Mr. Cassin, in September, 1842. For many 

 years succeeding the publication of his description, in 1851, the 

 species seems to have almost entirely eluded observation, and it 

 was not until about the beginning of the last decade that the prob- 

 lem of its distribution began to be solved, while there probably 

 remains much to be learned regarding this point. We now know, 

 however, that it extends over Eastern North America from Hud- 

 son's Bay to Central America, while in certain portions of the 

 Mississippi Valley it occurs regularly and in considerable numbers 

 during the spring and fall migrations. Its breeding range does not 

 seem to have been so well made out, but Mr. Nelson found one or 

 two pairs near Chicago in July, 1874 (Bulletin Essex Institute, Vol. 

 A^III, p. 102), and Professor Aughey gives it in his list of locust- 

 eating birds as a summer resident in Eastern Nebraska (Notes on 

 the Nature of the Food of the Birds of Nebraska, p. 27). This 

 latter record appears to be the most western one for the United 

 States. 



But it is more particulai'ly of the history and distribution of the 

 Philadelphia Vireo in our Eastern States, with a few original facts 

 regarding its habits, that I wish to treat in the present article. Its 

 title to a place in the fauna of New England was first established 

 by Professor C. E. Hamlin, who took a single specimen at Water- 



VOL. V. 1 



