REPORT UPON ORNITHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



77 



27. Stelgidopteryx serripennis, (Aud.) Kough-winged Swallow. 



Not uncommon along the streams in the immediate vicinity of the 

 post. I think they must have nested in the hollows of trees, since I 

 could discover no bank suitable for their excavations. 



(the Yireos). 



28. Vireo gilvus (Vieill.), var. swainsoni, Bd. Western Warbling Yireo. 



Very common in the cotton woods along the streams. Have observed 



it from 6,000 to 10,000 feet, at which latter height it is very numerous. 



There is nothing in habits and notes to distinguish it from the closely- 



allied eastern form (gilvus). 

 paler colors. 



It is, however, easily recognizable by its 



29. Vireo solitarius (Wils.), var. plumbeus, Cs. Lead-colored Vireo. 

 Not very common ; frequenting about the same localities as the pre- 

 ceding, with perhaps a greater preference for the pine-woods ; habits 

 and song identical with the Solitary Vireo of the East. A nest found by 

 Mr. C. E. Aiken in El Paso County, Colorado, and by him kindly pre- 

 sented to me, exhibits but little difference when compared with nests of 

 the true solitarius taken in New England. It is composed of soft, cot- 

 tony substances, bound externally with strips of bark and other filirous 

 material, with a lining of fine grasses. The eggs are pure white, spot- 

 ted chiefly at the larger end with reddish-brown. 



AMPELID^E (the Chatterers). 



30. Myiadestes toicnsendii (Aud.) Townsend's Solitaire. 



During a week's stay at the base of Baldy Peak I frequently saw this 

 bird in the pine-forests, and as high up on the mountain-sides as 10,000 

 feet, and its summer-range doubtless extends up to timber-line. Its 

 habits, as far as I noticed them, are singularly like those of the blue- 

 birds. Besides a loud, liquid call-note, the male has a beautiful warb- 

 ling song. This somewhat resembles the finest efforts of the Purple 

 Finch (Carpodacus purpuretis), but far excels that bird in power, sweet- 

 ness, and modulation. Though 1 searched most carefully for the nest of 

 this species, I was not successful further than to satisfy myself that it 

 breeds in the crevices of the rocks. Its preference for such localities 

 during the summer, with the evident solicitude manifested on more than 

 one occasion, left little doubt in my mind upon this point. 



