DESCRIPTIVE LIST 271 



FIG. 218. BLUE-HEADED VIEEO. 



270. Lanivireo solitarius alticola (Brewst.}. MOUNTAIN VIREO. 



Description. Similar to the Blue-headed Vireo, but larger, with the crown and back much 

 darker, being in typical specimens nearly the same shade. Extreme measurements of 20 speci- 

 mens from Raleigh, Weaverville, and Statesville: L., 5.50-6.00; W., 3.00-3.25; T., 2.15-2.45. 



Range. Southern Alleghanies in summer, wintering southward. 



Range in North Carolina. Mountain region in summer, also to some extent in the central 

 portion of the State, as far east at least as Wakefield in Wake County. Occasional also in winter 

 at Raleigh. 



The Mountain Solitary Vireo is a form of this species found in the mountains 

 of our State, from which it was first described by Brewster from an adult male 

 taken at Highlands, Macon County, May 29, 1885 (Auk, Jan., 1886). It also 

 occurs eastward through the State, apparently becoming less typical as one pro- 

 ceeds until reaching eastern Wake County, where it has been taken in early July 

 within hearing of the songs of the Prothonotary Warbler. It seems rather unusual 

 that a bird whose chosen breeding grounds are in the high mountains and Canada 

 should nest in our hot pine woods in a wholly different life zone. 



In the mountains it appears to be quite a common and universally distributed 

 bird, having been found in Macon, Cherokee, Buncombe, Watauga, Avery, Cald- 

 well, Haywood, Transylvania, and Mitchell counties. It arrives in the State late in 

 March, and departs in October or early November. In the mountains it breeds 

 chiefly in deciduous trees, Cairns having found a nest in a chestnut tree on Craggy 

 Mountain in Buncombe County, May 27, 1887. Sherman and C. S. Brimley saw a 

 pair building a nest in a small sourwood at Lake Toxaway, May 8, 1908, and Bruner 

 discovered a nest in a chestnut tree at Blowing Rock a few years ago. Cairns also 

 took a second nest, this time in an oak, on May 4, 1888. Outside of the mountains 

 this form has been recorded at Statesville (McLaughlin) , and Morganton (Wayne) , 

 while birds that are at least as near this form as the preceding, breed at Raleigh. 

 As to its time of nesting in the central portion of the State, we took a nest contain- 

 ing four fresh eggs at Raleigh on April 27, 1891, and McLaughlin found one at 

 Statesville on June 11, and another June 15, 1888. The nests are more substantially 

 built than those of other vireos, and are composed of coarse grass stems and strips 

 of bark lined with fine grass and ornamented outside with sheep's wool, pellets of 

 spider's web, and sometimes with lichens. In the mountain region it seems to range 

 mainly from 3,000 feet upward, which does not well conform with its breeding in 

 the low pine country of the central district. 



The song is loud and musical, very similar to that of the Yellow-throated Vireo, 

 but more shrill, and is not distinguishable from that of the Blue-headed Vireo. 



