124 Goss on f/ic Telloiv-lhroated Vireo. [April 



ica, including tlie entire series of tlie Smithsonian Institution, I 

 find myself unable to dispose of them in any more satisfactory 

 manner. The creation of a new race appears wiiolly unjustifi- 

 able, owing to the confusion in the literature of the species, the 

 instability of the races at present recognized, and the very great 

 individual variation that prevails amongst birds from the same 

 locality. A final resting-place for the many puzzling specimens 

 from the West will be found only after such a thorough over- 

 hauling of the genus Ereinophila as cannot be based upon exist- 

 insf material. 



NOTES ON THE NESTING HABITS OF THE YEL- 

 LOW-THROATED VIREO {LANIVIREO FLAV- 

 IFRONS). 



BY N. S. GOSS. 



On the 9th of May, 1877, I found in the timber near Neosho 

 Falls, Kansas, a nest of this bird (a pendant one, as are all the 

 Vireos' nests I have found) attached to branches of a very small 

 horizontal limb of a large hickory tree, about twenty feet from 

 the ground, and ten feet below the limbs that formed the top of 

 the tree. In the forks of the tree the Cooper's Hawks were 

 nesting, and I discovered the Vireo and its nest in watching the 

 Hawks — or rather the man I had hired to climb the tree to the 

 Hawk's nest. The little bird at first flew oft', but 5n his near 

 approach returned and suffered him to bend the limb towards the 

 tree and cover her with his hand on the nest. The twig was 

 quickly broken and the bird and nest lowered by a line, in a 

 small covered basket taken to collect the eggs of the Hawk. 

 Such manifestations of courage and love, so rare and exceptional, 

 touched me to the heart, and it \vas hard to make up my mind to 

 rob and kill the bird and her mate, scolding in the tree-top. I 

 can only offer in extenuation that they were the first I had met 

 with in this State, and the strong desire to have them in my col- 

 lection. The nest was made of, and fastened to the limb with, 

 silk-like threads and bits of cotton from plants, fastened together 



