740 The Sparrow-like Birds 



rudimentary and concealed or in any event not more than one third the 

 length of the nintli, while the coloration is plain olive, olive-green, or grayish 

 above and whitish or yellowish beneath, the wings being without white bands 

 or other markings. One of the commonest and most widely distributed is 

 the Red-eyed Vireo (F. olivacea~), which is found throughout temperate North 

 America in general, except the arid districts, and may be known by its red 

 eye, above which is a black-bordered white line. Too well known to need 

 further description, the Red-eye comes to our shade trees, orchards, and 

 woodlands as an ever welcome visitor, its peculiar but pleasing, albeit monoto- 

 nous, song being incessantly given, even during the heat of the long summer 

 days when few other birds are singing. "Though constantly talking," says 

 Wilson Flagg, "he takes the part of a deliberate orator, who explains his subject 

 in a few words and then makes a pause for his hearers to reflect upon it. We 

 might suppose him to be repeating moderately, with a pause between each 

 sentence, ' you see it you know it do you hear me ? do you believe it ? ' 

 All these strains are delivered with a rising inflection at the close, and with 

 a pause, as if waiting for an answer." Other species of the genus are the Phil- 

 adelphia Vireo (F. philadelphica) of eastern North America, which has the 

 under parts olive yellowish, and the Warbling Vireo (F. gilva) of eastern tem- 

 perate North America, which is replaced in the western area by its subspecies 

 (F. g. swainsonii). 



Yellow-throated and Solitary Vireos. Very similar to the last genus, but 

 possessing a relatively shorter and stouter bill and wings with two conspicuous 

 white bars, is the genus Lanivireo, which embraces three species, of which the 

 Yellow-throated Vireo (L. flavifrons] of eastern North America may be taken 

 as typical. This species, which may be known by the absence of the spurious 

 (tenth) primary, olive-green back and hind neck, and bright yellow throat and 

 chest, is very like the Red-eye in habits, except that it keeps mpre to the upper 

 portions of the trees, and has a similar but more deliberate song. The only 

 other North American species is the Solitary Vireo (L. solitarius}, which has the 

 spurious primary well developed but lacks the yellow on the chest. It is found 

 in eastern North America, and in four or five subspecies spreads over the major 

 portion of southern and western United States. 



White-eyed Vireo. Differing from the last two genera in having the tenth 

 primary well developed being more than one third the length of the nin th- 

 is Vireo with its many species and geographical races, one of the best-known 

 being the White-eyed Vireo (F. noveboracensis] of the eastern United States. 

 It is plain greenish olive or dull olive-green above, the wings with two distinct 

 yellowish white wing-bars, and dull white tinged with yellow laterally and on 

 the breast below; the irides are white, whence of course its name. The 

 White-eye is abundant in suitable localities, such as hazel thickets, black- 

 berry patches, bushy swamps, etc., "where its presence is made known by its 

 vociferous notes, which in loudness appear out of all proportion to the size 

 of the little creature which produces them. These notes are remarkable for 

 their oddity as well as for their strength, being variously interpreted as 'ginger- 



