120 YELLOW-THROATED FLYCATCHER. 



among the low bushes in search of berries, accompanied by its young, 

 and at that time enters the orchards and gardens even of our villages and 

 cities. It arrives in Pennsylvania and New Jersey about the end of 

 April, and in Massachusetts and Maine about a month later. 



The nest of the Yellow-throated Vireo is truly a beautiful fabric. It 

 sometimes extends to five or six inches in depth, and as it is always placed 

 at the extremity of small twigs, it is very conspicuous. It is attached to 

 these twigs with much care by slender threads of vines, or those of other 

 trees at its upper edges, mixed with the silk of different caterpillars, and 

 enclosed with lichens, so neatly attached by means of saliva, that the 

 whole outer surface seems formed of them, while the inner bed, which is 

 about two and a half inches in diameter, by an inch and a half in depth, 

 is lined with delicate grasses, between which and the bottom coarser mate- 

 rials are employed to fiU the space, such as bits of hornets"' nests, dry 

 leaves, and wool. The eggs, which are four or five in number, are of an 

 elongated form, white, spotted with reddish-brown or black. The young- 

 are out about the beginning of July. In Maine it raises one brood only, 

 but farther south not unfrequently two. 



Vireo flavifeons, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 70- 

 Yellow-throated Flycatcher, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 117, pi. ?• fig- 3. 

 Yellow-throated Vireo, Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 302. 



Adult Male. Plate CXIX. 



Bill of moderate length, broad and depressed at the base, compressed 

 towards the tip, acute ; upper mandible with the sides convex, the edges 

 sharp, the tip deflected ; lower mandible straight, the back rounded, the 

 edges sharp, the tip acute. Nostrils basal, lateral, oblong. Head rather 

 large, neck short, body robust. Feet of ordinary length ; tarsus com- 

 pressed, anteriorly scutellate, sharp behind ; toes slender, free ; claws 

 slightly arched, compressed, acute. 



Plumage soft and blended. Wings of ordinary length, the second 

 and third primaries longest. Tail of ordinary length, emarginate. Basi- 

 rostral bristles short. 



Bill brownish-black above, the greater part of the lower mandible 

 pale blue, the tip dusky. Iris dark brown. Feet lead-colour. The 

 vipper parts of a deep greenish-olive, the quills and coverts deep brown, 

 the latter tipped with white, the primaries and some of the secondaries 



