272 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Genus Vireo (Vieill.) 

 271. Vireo griseus griseus (Bodd.). WHITE-EYED VIREO. 



Description: Ads. Upperparts, including upper tail-coverts, bright olive-green, more or less 

 washed with grayish; greater and middle wing-coverts tipped with yellowish white, forming 

 two distinct wing-bars; outer web of tertials edged with whitish; lores and eye-ring yellow; throat 

 white or whitish; belly white; breast and sides washed with greenish yellow; iris white, hazel 

 in the young. L., 5.27; W., 2.37; T., 1.95; B. from N., .29. (Chap., Birds ofE. N. A.) 



Range. United States, east of Rocky Mountains; wintering in Mexico and Central America. 



Range in North Carolina. Whole State in summer, breeding throughout its range. 



PIG. 219. WHITE-EYED VIREO. 



The White-eyed Vireo is a common bird throughout North Carolina in the 

 breeding season, arriving near the end of March or during the first week in April, 

 except in the mountains, where it appears a week or two later. The latest date 

 recorded in the fall is October 16 at Raleigh. 



Unlike our other vireos, this is a bird of the thickets rather than the woods. 

 The nest is of the regular vireo type, and is usually found suspended from the fork 

 of an alder, swamp dogwood, or other lowland bush, at a height of three to eight 

 feet from the ground. The outside of the nest is usually ornamented with green 

 moss. The spots on the eggs are more or less evenly distributed over the entire 

 surface. Size .75 x .55. At Raleigh, eggs have been taken from late April until 

 late June. 



The White-eyed Vireo is a fussy, inquisitive little bird, very much given to scold- 

 ing any intruder upon its privacy. The song is a very distinctive feature of the 

 lowgrounds, but it cannot be called particularly melodious. Many years ago the 

 boys around Raleigh used to say that in singing it said, " Fishing-in-the-creek ; 

 put-y our-cork-a-little-deeper . " 



51. FAMILY MNIOTILTID>E. WOOD WARBLERS 



This is the most characteristic North American family of birds, none of the 

 species being found outside of the Western Hemisphere. Most of them are con- 

 fined to the eastern portion of the North American continent during the breeding 

 season. While a few species pass the winter in the United States, as a whole they 

 are highly migratory, and journey in autumn to the West Indies or South and 

 Central America. 



They are all small birds, the Yellow-breasted Chat being the only one which 

 could be-called of medium size, and the majority of them are only about five inches 

 jn length. 



