BIRDS OF INDIANA. 1015 



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To me it seems the most sluggish of the Vireos. They begin their fall 

 migration early in September, sometimes as early as the first of that 

 month. Some years they are passing into October. The following 

 are the latest dates I have: Plymouth, Mich., September 10, 1894; 

 Chicago, 111., September 21, 1896; Lafayette, Ind., September 2, 1896; 

 Bicknell, September 18, 1894; Brookville, October 13, 1887. 



Of 21 specimens examined, 7 had eaten caterpillars, among them 

 geometers; 7, beetles, among them weevils and buprestis; 3, grass- 

 hoppers; 2, moths; 2, heteropterous insects, among them leaf-hoppers.; 

 3, dipterous insects (King, Geol. of Wis., I., p. 523). While they are 

 with us, practically their whole food is insects. 



251. (629). Vireo solitarius (WiLs.). 



Blue-headed Vireo. 

 Synonyms, SOLITARY VIREO, SOLITARY GREENLET. 



Details of structi/re of Blue-headed Vireo. Natural size. 



Above, top and sides of head and nape, bluish-ash; back and upper 

 tail coverts, olive-green; wings and tail, blackish, edged with olive- 

 green, the former crossed with two whitish bars; line from nostril to 

 eye and ring around eye, white. Below, white; sides, . greenish- 

 yellow. 



Length, 5.00-6.00; wing, 2.90-3.00; tail, 2.10-2.20. 



RANGE. Eastern North America, from Guatemala and Cuba north 

 to Hudson Bay and Mackenzie Eiver (Ft. Simpson). Breeds from 

 Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Michigan, north. Winters from 

 Florida, south. 



Nest, pensile; in bush, five to eight feet up; of bark and" fibres, 

 outside often decorated with lichens. Eggs, 3-4; white, wreathed 

 with chestnut or black spots about the larger end; .79 by .55. 



Tne Blue-headed Vireo is a regular migrant; some years it is com- 

 mon, others rare. In the Whitewater Valley they frequent the 

 wooded hillsides and upland woods, where they seem to prefer the 

 undergrowth rather than the trees. In southern Indiana they arc 



