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SOLITARY VIREO. 



ViREO SOLITARIUS, ViEILLOT. 

 PLATE XXVIII. Vol. I. p. 147. 



This species is an inhabitant of the Columbia River district, where 

 several specimens were procured by Dr Townsend. I fotmd it abun- 

 dant in Maine, and it reaches Pictou in Nova Scotia, beyond which I 

 saw none on my way to Labrador. We found it in the Texas, arriving 

 from farther south late in April. My friend Dr Bachman informs me 

 that it is " every year becoming more abimdant in South Carolina, 

 where it remains from about the middle of February to that of March, 

 keeping to the woods. It has a sweet and loud song of half a dozen 

 notes, heard at a considerable distance." Mr Nuttall has favoured 

 me with the following notice respecting it : — 



" About the beginning of May, in the oaks already almost wholly 

 in leaf, on the banks of the Columbia, we heard around us the plaintive 

 deliberate warble of this species, first mentioned by Wilson. Its song 

 seems to be intermediate between that of the Red-eyed and Yellow- 

 breasted species, having the preai, preai, &c. of the latter, and the fine 

 variety of the former in its tones. It darted about in the tops of the 

 trees, incessantly engaged in quest of food, and now and then disput- 

 ing with some rival. The nest of this bird is made much in the same 

 manner as that of Vireo olivaceus. One which I examined was sus- 



• 



pended from the forked twig of the wild crab-tree, at about ten feet 

 from the ground. The chief materials were dead and whitened grass- 

 leaves, with some cobwebs agglutinated together as usual, externally 

 scattered with a few shreds of moss (Hypnum) to resemble the branch 

 on which it hung ; here and there were also a few of the white paper- 

 like capsules of the spider's nest, and it was lined with fine blades of 

 grass and slender root fibres. The situation, as usual, was open, but 

 shady." 



