VIREONIDiE, VIREOS. — GEN. 53. 



119 



continent, and several of them are abundant birds of tlie Atlantic States, inhabit- 

 ing woodland and shrubbery. They are exclusively insectivorous, and are therefore 

 necessarily migratory in our latitudes. They build a neat pensile nest in the fork 

 of a branchlet, and commonly lay four or five white speckled eggs. Next after the 

 warblers, the greenlets are the most delightful of our forest birds, though their 

 charms address the ear 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-ej'e — in the tender secret that the warbling vireo 

 confides in whispers to the passing breeze — he is insensible, who does not hear the 

 echo of thoughts he never clothes in words. 



ANALYSIS OF SPECIES. , 



l*rimariea apparently 9 (tlie 1st rudimentary and displaced), (a) 

 rrimaries evidently 10 (the 1st short or spurious), (h) 



(a) Threat yellow, ' ■ • fiavi/rons. 



— white; crown ashy, not Mack-edged, hardly contrasting with back pluliiddpliinis. 



— black-edged, hack olive; no niax'llary streaks, oHvaceus, 



— maxillary streaks, harbaiulus, 



(b) Crown black atricapillus. 



— not black; spurious quill at least 5 as long as 2Dd and wing 2^ long, vicinior. 



— not \ as long as 2nd, or wing not 2.j long (c) 



(c) Wing-bands wanting: coloration as in p/itZa(/€//»fticws, gilvus, 



— present; length over 5 in.; back olive, contrasting with ashy blue crown, . . . soHtarius. 



— plumbeous, crown scarcely different, .... plumbeus. 



— 5 in. or less; wing =tail, both about 2^; 1st quill= ^ 2nd pusillus. 



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



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



— and under parts yell'sh, . huttonii. 



Obs. The Bartramian Vireo of Aud., Orn. Biog. v, 296, pi. 434, f. 4; 

 B. Am. iv, 153, pi. 242, and of Ndtt., i, 2d ed. 358, has not been identified by 

 later ornithologists ; but there is little chance of its being a good species. The 

 descriptions indicate a bird much like V. olivaceus. The original Vireo hartramii of 

 SwAiNSON, Fauna Bor.-Am. ii, 235, is a Brazilian species of the olivaceus group, 

 wrongly ascribed to North America. The name Vireo virescens that Baird applied 

 to the Bartramian Vireo, in B. N. A. p. 333, is doubtless an erroneous identification, 

 as he has since shown, Vieillot's virescens being based on a Pennsylvania speci- 

 men, almost certainly olivaceus. — For the discussion of these questions, and 

 a masterly review of the whole genus, see Baird, Review, pp. 322-370. 



^ 



V 



Fig. 50. Ked-eyed Vireo. (This, and subsequent figs, of this family, of nat. size.) 



Red-eyed Vireo. Above, olive-green ; crowii ash, edged on each side 

 with a blackish line; below this a white superciliary line, below this again a 

 dusky stripe through eye; under parts white, faintly shaded with olive 

 along sides, and tinged with olive on under wing and tail-coverts ; wiufs 

 and tail dusky, edged with olive outside, with whitish inside ; bill dusky, pale 



