OHAEACTERS OF VIREO NOVEBORACENSIS 521 



Hab. — Eastern United States, excepting perhaps paits of New England ; 

 west regularly to Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Western 

 Texas, occasionally to eastern bases of the Reeky Mountains. Minnesota 

 (Irippe). "Nova Scotia" and ? "Columbia River" i^AiiAiibon). Breeds in 

 its United States range at large. Winters from South Carolina, Georgia, 

 Florida, and the Gulf States south to Guatemala. Bermudas, common, resi- 

 dent. Cuba, rare. 



Sp. ch. — 9 <5 Olivaceo-virens, infra albidus lateribus et pec- 

 tore flavicantibus ; fronte orbitisqvs flavis, lorisfuscis; alisfuscis, 

 flavidalbido limbatis et bifasciaiis ; caudd fused, virentiolivaceo 

 limbatd, rostro pedibusque plumbeis, iridibus albis. Long. tot. 5; 

 alar. exp. 8; alee 2J-2J. 



S 9 ) adult : A small, stoutly-built species, notable for the brightness of 

 the olive parts, and the richness of the yellow about the forehead and eyes 

 and along the sides ; furthermore, the iris is white. Length, 4i-5 ; extent, 

 ^S-SJ; wing, 9^-2^; spurious primary exposed about f of an inch, and 

 about half as long as the 2d primary ; 4th and 5th quills longest ; 3d and 

 6th little shorter ; 2d about equal to 8th ; tail, 2J-2i ; tarsus, i ; middle toe 

 and claw, ^ ; bill, along culmen, ^ or less. Upper parts bright olive-green, 

 including the crown, which, if anything, is more yellowish still; usually a 

 slight ashy shade on the hind neck ; forehead and orbital region bright 

 yellow ; a dusky loral line ; under parts white, but brightly tinted on the 

 sides, axillars, crissum, and sometimes quite across the breast, with yellow. 

 Wings and tail dusky, the feathers of the latter edged with the color of the 

 back, the wing-coverts crossed with two broad and conspicuous white or 

 whitish bars, and the quills edged with the same, especially the three inner- 

 most secondaries, on which the edging is very broad. Bill and feet blackish- 

 plumbeous ; the cutting edges of the mandibles, at least in dried skins, pale 

 horn-color. Iris white. 



The sexes are indistinguishable in size or color, and the young are quite 

 similar. A newly-fledged bird which I shot August 11, 185?, is slightly 

 smaller than an adult, but not otherwise sufficiently different to require 

 separate notice. 



NOW leaviag the ornamental park, the mantling woodland 

 of deciduous trees, and the perpetual robe of green that 

 the mountains wear, and losing as we go the band of Greenlet 

 musicians that sing in these shades, let us push into more 

 lowly places — for we have not done with the Vireos yet. Indeed, 

 the species of this group might be classed according to their 

 life's station, almost as well as by those technicalities which the 

 ornithologist discovers in beak and wing. One set of Greenlets 

 are large and emuloas birds — the Eed-eye, the Tellow-throat, 

 the Solitary, Plumbeous, and Warbling Vireos — living in wood- 

 land high above the level of the ground ; and these we have 

 already seen in their native haunts. With the White-eyed 



