VIBEONIDM : VIItEOS, OB GBEENLETS. 



331 



170. 



character of the bill, — all those Oscines, as wrens, creepers, or titmice, that show much 

 cohesion of the toes, having an entirely different bill. Some of the weaker-billed species might 

 be carelessly mistaken for warblers ; but there is no excuse for this, nor for confounding them 

 with any of the little clamatorial flycatchers. The Vireos wore long supposed to possess either 

 9 or 10 primaries. But that the important character of number of primaries — one marking 

 whole families as we have seen — should here subside to specific value only, seemed suspicious; 

 and the f;ict is that all the species really have 10, only that, in some instances, the 1st primary 

 is rnilimentary and displaced, lying concealed outside the base of the second quUl. The N. Am. 

 species are distributed over the temperate portions of this continent, and several of them are 

 abundant birds of the Atlantic States, inhabiting woodland and shrubbery. They are exclu- 

 sively insectivorous, and are therefore necessarily migratory in our latitudes. They build a 

 neat pensile nest in the fork of a branchlet, and commonly lay toav or five white, speckled eggs. 

 All are alike in this respect, the nest and eggs of none of the species (excepting atricapillus) 

 lieiug distinguishable with certainty, though differing in size with that of the parent, and some- 

 what in position, according as the parents are birds of woodland or shrubbery ; it would be 

 useless, therefore, to give particular descriptions for each species. Next after the warblers, 

 the greenlets are the most delightful of our forest birds, though their charms address the car 

 and not the eye. Clad in simple tints that harmonize with the verdure, these gentle songsters 

 warble their lays unseen, while the foliage itself seems stirred to music. In the quaint and 

 curious ditty of the white-eye — in the earnest, voluble strains of the red-eye — in the tender 

 secret that the warbling vireo confides in whispers to the passing breeze — ho is insensible 

 who does not hoar the echo of thoughts he never clothes in words. 



Analysis of Species. 



Primaries apparently 9 (the 1st rudimentary and displaced), (a) 



Primaries evidently 10 (the Ist short or spurious), (b) 



(a) Throat yellow fiavifrons 



— white ; crown ashy, not black-edged, hardly contrasting with back phllarJelphlcus 



— black-edged ; back olive ; with maxillary streaks barhatulus 



— no maxillary streaks; crissum merely yellowish 



olivaceus 

 — bright yellow 



flaviviridls 



(b) Crown black atricapillus 



— not black; spurious quill at least J as long as 2d, and wing 2.50 long vlcinior 



— not J as long as 2d, or wing not 2.50 long ic) 



(c) Wing-bands wanting: coloration as in 7)/M/(!rfe/i;/iJais 



— present; length over .5.00 ; back olive, contrasting with ashy-blue crown 



— plumbeous, crown scarcely different .... 



— 5.00 or less ; wing — tail, both about 2.25 ; 1st quill = J the 2d . . 



— > tail ; crown ashy, chin and superc. line white 



— olive, chin wht. , superc. line yell. 



— and under parts yell'sh 



V. oUva'ceus. (Lat. olivaceus, olive-colored. Fig. 189.) Ebd-eyed Gkeenlet. Above, 

 olive-green ; crown ash, edged on each side with a blackish line, below this a white super- 

 ciliary line, below this 

 again a dusky stripe 

 through eye ; under parts 

 white, faintly shaded 

 with greenish - yellow 

 along sides, and tinged 

 with the same on under 

 wing- and tail-coverts; 

 wings and tail dusky. 



176 



173 

 172 



170 



171 

 185 

 180 



gilvus 174, 175 

 solitarius 177, 178 

 ptumheus 179 

 pusiUus 184 

 . . belli 183 

 novebor. 181 

 huttoni 182 



the feathers edged with 



Fig. 189. — V. olivaceus, nat. size. (From Baird. ) 



