362 NORTH AMEllICAN -BIKDS. 



notes cliange to to-vhil-to-wlnni, and sonuitiini's to a soil, sin^ple chirp, whis- 

 pered so gently as scarcely to l)e audible. The name of Wliip-tom-kelly 

 Mr. CJossc never heard applied to it in Jamaica. Yet it is a bird olteu heard, 

 and one whose notes liave a similarity to articulate sounds, and naturally 

 8uj,'<i[est a common appellation. It is ver vociferous and ])ertinacious in its 

 calls, repeatinf,' them with enerjfy every two or three secoiuls. 



This species, he states, does not ordinarily sit on a i)rcminent twig, or d.art 

 out after insects, thouj^h it has been seen in eager pursuit of a butterfly. It 

 seems to live in the centre of thick woods. It does not pass the winter in 

 Jamaica, but leaves at the beginning of October, returning as early as the 

 2ilth of March. Its food he states to be both animal auv. vegetable, as he 

 found in its stomach the seeds of the tropical plants and jerries. In April, 

 Mr. (Josse observed it hunting insects by the borders of tl;e rJuetields IJiver, 

 and so intent u])on its o(!cupat)on as to aUow of a very near approach. It 

 sought insects among the grass and low herbage, perching cm the stalks of 

 weeds, and darting out after both vagrant and stationary prey. They incu- 

 bate in June and July. 



Like all this genus the Long-billed Vireo builds a pensile nest of great 

 architectural ingenuity and beauty. It is a deep cup, usually about two 

 thirds of a sjihere in shajic, truncated at the top. The materials of which 

 it is made are often somewhat coarse. Mr. (iosse describes it as about as 

 large as an ordinary teacup, narrowed at the mouth, conipo.sed of dry grasses, 

 silk, cotton, lichens, and spiders'-web. It is usually suspended from the fork 

 of two twigs, the margin very neatly overwoven to embrace them. The 

 materials are well interwoven, and the walls firm and close, though not very 

 thick. The whole is smoothly lined with slender veiietable fibres resembling; 

 human hair. One nest had its cavity nearly fdled with a mass of white cot- 

 ton, interwoven with the other materials, wliich, being picked cotton, had 

 evidently been tak(in from some yard or building. 



The eggs of this species are three in number, of a brilliant white, deli- 

 cately tinted with pink, and marked with a few line red and red-brown 

 spots, usually about the larger end. 



An egg of the variety from (Juba is of an oblong-oval shape, slightly 

 pointed at one end, and the markings of faint ])urple and of dark ])urplish- 

 brown, in bold dashes, are all about the larger end. Another from the same 

 locality is more distinctly rounded at one and pointed at tlu; other end, and 

 is marked with fine brown dots distributed over the whole egg. These eggs 

 measure, one .825 by .5") of an inch, and the other .78 by .55. An egg from 

 Jamaica is of an extremely oblong-oval, measuring .88 by .55 of an inch, and 

 is boldly marked more or less over the entire egg with large blotches of pur- 

 plish-brown. 



The Messr.s. Newton describe the nest of the caliihu of St. Croix as a beau- 

 tiful structure, shaped like an inverted cone, composed outwardly of dried 

 blades of grass, dried leaves, and wool, woven round the twigs, to which it 



