294 THE RED-EYED VIREO. 



The Loggerhead, or Migrant Shrike, has increased somewhat within 

 lecent years, except in those localities where it has been subjected to a thought- 

 less persecution. It is perhaps a thankless task to speak a good word for this 

 rapacious renegade "song-bird," who flaunts his butcheries in our very faces, 

 but we must always defer to the sum of the facts, not to those alone which are 

 apparent. Birds are found to constitute only eight per cent of the Shrike's 

 food throughout the year, and those mainly of seed-eating varieties. Sylvester 

 D. Judd, Ph. D., in an elaborate report upon the subject of the Shrike's food, 

 concludes, "The Loggerhead's beneficial qualities outweigh 4 to i its injurious 

 ones. Instead of being persecuted, it should receive protection." 



No. 129. 



RED-EYED VIREO. 



A. O. U. No. 624. Vireo olivaceus (Linn.). 



Description. — Adult : Crown grayish slate, bordered on either side by 

 blackish; a white line above the eye, and a dusky line through the eye; remain- 

 ing upper parts light olive-green ; wings and tail dusky with narrow olive-green 

 edgings ; below dull white, with a slight greenish-yellow tinge on lining of wings, 

 sides, flanks, and crissum; first and fourth, and second and third primaries about 

 equal, the latter pair forming the tip of wing ; bill blackish at base above, thence 

 dusky or horn-color, pale below; feet leaden blue; iris red. Little difference 

 with age, sex, or season, save that young and fall birds are brighter colored. 

 Length 5.50-6.50 ( 139. 7-165. i) ; av. of three Columbus specimens: wing 3.03 

 (77) ; tail 1.99 (50.5) ; bill from nostril. .36 (9.1) ; — a little below average in size. 



Recognition M^rks. — Warbler size; largest; white superciliary line con- 

 trasting with blackish and slate of crown ; red eye. 



Nest, a semi-pensile basket or pouch, of bark-strips, "hemp," and vegetable 

 fibers, lined with plant-down, and fastened by the edges to forking twigs near 

 end of horizontal branch, five to twenty-five feet up. Eggs, 3 or 4, white, with 

 black or umber specks and spots, few in number, and chiefly near larger end. 

 Av. size, .85 X .56 (21.6 X 14.2). 



Genera] Range. — Eastern North . America, west to Colorado, Utah and 

 British Columbia; north to the Arctic regions; south in winter from Florida to 

 northern South America. Breeds nearly throughout its North American range. 



Range in Oliio. — Abundant summer resident, universally distributed. 



ONE cannot be sure whether it was the bird's color, or good cheer, or 

 characteristic note, which led Vieillot in 1807 to select for this group the name 

 Vireo, a Latin word meaning, I am green, or flourishing. The plumage of 

 this modest "Greenlet" boasts only enough green to enable its owner to lose 



