26S 



BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



265. Vireosylva olivacea (Linn.}. RED-EYED VIREO. 



Description. Olive green above, white below. Crown ashy, edged on each side with blackish. 

 A white superciliary line and below this a dusky streak. Iris red. Extreme measurements of 

 45 Raleigh specimens: L., 5.65 to 6.25; wing, 2.90"to 3.40; tail, 1.95 to 2.30. 



Range. North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, wintering in Mexico, Central and 

 South America. 



Range in North Carolina. Whole State in summer. 



FIG. 216. RED-EYED VIREO. 



The Red-eyed Vireo, the best known and most abundant member of the family, 

 is a very common summer resident in North Carolina, arriving from the south 

 about the middle of April, although somewhat later in the higher and more north- 

 ern localities in the mountains. The latest birds do not leave us in fall until the 

 last of October. This is one of the few birds in which a distinct wave of migration 

 has been noted quite distinct from the one which brings the breeding birds. During 

 May, C. S. Brimley has often observed these Vireos migrating in the lowgrounds 

 fully three weeks after the breeding birds had arrived in the upland woods. 



The nest is a deep, cup-shaped structure, made of bark, grass, and other vegetable 

 substances woven together, the lining being of finer materials. It is suspended by 

 the rim from a slender fork at the end of a drooping limb. We have found nests 

 thus situated in beech, sweet gum, dogwood, persimmon, oak, maple, and birch 

 trees. The eggs are three, occasionally four, pure white in ground-color, and spar- 

 ingly sprinkled with fine, dark, reddish-brown dots, chiefly near the larger end. 

 Size .85 x .56. At Raleigh nests have been recorded from May 19 to June 17, and 

 what few dates we have for other North Carolina localities also fall within this 

 period. 



