VIREOS, OR GREENLETS. 283 
Formerly the Vireo family was divided into three different genera*, but now, 
according to the system adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union, all the species 
belong to the one genus Vireo. Dr. Elliott Coues gives in his excellent work, “Birds 
of the Colorado Valley” (p. 489), the following concise and characteristic description of 
the family : 
“The specific characters in this group are for the most part very constant and 
tangible, though requiring in many cases nice discrimination, so curiously interrelated 
are these birds. They are an interesting and agreeable tribe of little birds, simply 
colored, in harmony with the foliage amidst which they live, and numerous enough, 
both in species and in individuals, to form a marked feature of our sylvan Ornis. Most 
of the Greenlets, including all the larger species, as the Red-eyed, the Blue-headed, the 
Yellow-throated, and the Warbling Vireos, inhabit high open woods, and the shade-trees 
of our parks, lawns, and public streets; while the smaller ones, like the White-eye of 
the East, and Bell’s, and the Least Greenlet, live down in the shrubbery with the Chats, 
Thrashers, and Catbirds. Being mainly insectivorous, though they also feed on berries, 
they are migratory in our country, and appear with all the periodicity of the Warblers 
themselves; different Vireos nestle anywhere in the United States, and some of them 
are among our most numerous and conspicuous summer visitors; few go much, if any, 
beyond the United States, and only exceptionally reach high latitudes. They are very 
agile and industrious birds, indefatigable in the pursuit of insects, nervous and highly 
animated in bearing, voluble and versatile in song, each kind having its own musical 
accomplishments. Though insignificant in size, Greenlets are spirited birds—the plucky 
little Red-eye, for instance, will defend itself when wounded with all the courage of a 
Hawk; and some of the most touching scenes I have ever witnessed among the birds 
have been those when Greenlets sought to protect, encourage, and sympathize with a 
stricken mate. The Greenlets all build one style of nests, a rather slight and thin-walled, 
but neat and compat, pensile, cup-like structure, suspended from the fork of a twig; 
and the eggs are alike white, rather sparsely but sharply speckled with dark markings. 
‘““Many species of Vireo, unknown to the United States, inhabit Mexico, the West 
Indies, and Central and South America as far at least as La Plata, some of them having 
a closely restricted geographical range.” 
Genus Vireo. Twelve species and six varieties. 
* Vireosylvia, Lanivireo, and Vireo. 
