GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 447 



The young are naked when hatched, but feather into 

 a soft mottled gray with glints of blue and green on 

 the upper parts and the under parts nearly white. 

 They are fed on small insects by regurgitation. 



627. WARBLING VIREO. — Vireo gilvus. 



Family : The Vireos. 



Length: 5.00-5.50. 



Adults: Upper parts olive grayish ; top of head dull ash-gi-ay ; rump 



and upper tail-coverts pale olive-green ; white streaks through eye ; 



wings and tail plain dusky hrown ; sides of head pale brownish ; under 



parts dull white, tinged with olive yellow. 

 Young: Top of head and hind-neck very pale grayish buff; lores and 



superciliary region white ; rest of upper parts huffy, wings with huffy 



bars ; under parts pure white, except for yellowish under tail-coverts. 

 Geographical Distribution: North America from Great Slave Lake to 



Mexico. 

 California Breeding Range: Through upper Sonoran and Transition 



zones. 

 Breeding Season : May and June. 

 Nest : A .strong, durable basket, made of bark strips and fine grasses on 



the inside ; suspended by the brim from forks of horizontal branches. 

 Eggs .■ 4 or 5 ; white, spotted, with reddish brown and lilac around the 



larger end. Size 0.70 X 0.55. 



The soft green plumage, unstreaked above and merg- 

 ing to greenish white below, is so characteristic of the 

 Vireo family as to win for them the name of Greenlets, 

 which to the non-scientific observer seems quite as ap- 

 propriate as Vireo. They are small birds, so nearly the 

 color of the leaves as to be observed with difficulty, ex- 

 cept for their friendly habit of stopping to chat with you 

 awhile at close range. Each different species has a dif- 

 ferent remark to make, but whatever is said you are sure 



