BIRDS OF KANSAS. 523 



ous strain, and in so musical a manner as to be ever pleasing 

 and never tiresome. 



Like all of the family, they feed upon insect life, for which 

 they industriously hunt among the branches and leaves, and they 

 are quite expert in catching upon the wing. Small berries in 

 their season are also relished as a dessert. In flight they glide 

 through the air rather swiftly, and in an easy, steady manner. 



Their prehensile nests are suspended from the forks or twigs 

 of trees, and are made of and fastened at the rim to and around 

 the twigs with lint-like fibers, shreds from weeds, vines, bits of 

 old leaves, spider threads, and cocoons, woven in and fastened 

 together with saliva, and lined with hair-like stems and rootlets; 

 to be looked for anywhere from the lowest branches to near the 

 tops of the tallest trees. Eggs three to five (usually four), 

 . 82x. 56; pure white, thinly and irregularly specked with red- 

 dish brown, chiefly about the larger end; in form, oval. 



Vireo gilvus (VIEILL.). 



WABBLING VIR3O. 

 PLATE XXXI. 



Summer resident; common in the eastern part of the State. 

 Arrive the last of April; begin laying about the 20th of May; 

 leave in September. 



B. 245. R. 139, 139a. C. 174, 175. G. 65, 265. U. 627. 



HABITAT. North America in general, from the fur countries 

 to Mexico; breeding from the southern United States north- 

 ward throughout their range. (The western form, V. gilvus 

 swainsoni, has not been recognized by the A. O. U. committee; 

 the difference upon which the variety was based not appearing 

 to them to be constant. Mr. Bidgway has since restored it in 

 his "Manual." I have not material enough at hand to venture 

 an opinion, and will only say to the reader, if finally reinstated 

 as a race, that it does not differ in its habits and actions in the 

 least from this species, and its nest and eggs are not distin- 

 guishable.) 



SP. CHAR. "Above, olive green, strongly glossed with ashy; the head and 

 nape above more distinctly ashy, but without decided line of demarcation be- 

 hind and without dusky ridge; rump pure olive. Stripe from nostril over eye 



