VIREOS. 301 
DESCRIPTION: Upper parts, olive-green, of the same shade as in V. olivaceus, the crown and sides of the 
head, bluish-ash in marked contrast, with a white line to and around but not behind the eye, and 
dusky lore. Below, pure white, the sides olive shaded, the under wing and tail-coverts quite yellowish. 
Wings and tail, dusky, most of the feathers edged with white, or with the color of the back, or both, 
and the wings with two white or yellowish cross-bars. Bill and feet, dark plumbeous. Fall specimens 
are commonly yellower than in spring. 
Length about 5.50 inches; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.25 inches. 
The Mountain Souirary Vireo, Vireo solitarius alticola BREWSTER, was discovered 
by the celebrated ornithologist, Prof. Wm. Brewster, of Harvard University, at High- 
lands, Macon County, North Carolina, May 29, 1885. It is larger than the true 
species, has a heavier bill, and different color of the upper parts. “In V. solitarius the 
crown and sides of the head are clear pure ash, in strong contrast with the olive-green 
of the back and rump; whereas in V. solitarius alticola the entire upper parts are 
nearly uniform blackish-plumbeous, with only a faint tinge of greenish on the back, 
which is essentially concolar with the crown.” 
“Throughout the elevated plateau occupying the south-eastern corner of Macon 
County, this new Vireo was one of the most abundant forest birds. It was found 
exclusively in open oak and chestnut woods, where its ringing voice, mingling with the 
rich music of the equally numerous Grosbeaks (Habia Iudoviciana) and Scarlet Tanagers 
(Piranga erythromelas), was rarely still even at noontide. Its song was somewhat 
like that of V. solitarius, but to my ear much finer, many of the notes being louder and 
sweeter, and the whole performance more continuous and flowing. On the Black 
Mountains it was also a very common and conspicuous bird, ranging from about 4,200 
feet to the lower edge of the balsams (5,000 feet), and inhabiting woods similar to 
those just described.” (Auk, III, 1886, p.111, 112.) A nest sent to Mr. Brewster was 
found May 27, 1887, by Mr. J. S. Cairns, on Craggy Mt., Buncombe Co., North Caro- 
lina. It was in a chestnut, ten feet out from the main trunk and about twenty feet 
from the ground, and contained four perfectly fresh eggs. They were pure white, with 
a few fine spots, and rather numerous, minute dots of brown varying in tone from 
vandyke to seal-brown. The nest was suspended after the usual Vireo fashion. “In 
places the rim is nearly an inch in thickness. The exterior is beautifully diversified 
with white and brown sheep’s wool, grayish lichens, small strips and fragments of 
decayed wood, and a few spider’s cocoons, bound firmly to, or hanging loosely from, 
the frame-work proper, which is composed of coarse grass stalks and strips of bark, 
the latter partly a reddish colored inner bark, probably from the hemlock, but largely 
the pale golden, sheeny outer bark of the yellow birch’. The interior cavity is lined 
with fine bleached grasses and the reddish stems of some species of club moss.”’ 
Cassin’s VIREO, Vireo solitarius Cassini HENSHAW, another sub-species, inhabits 
the Western United States and is confined during the breeding season to the Pacific 
coast region. In Oregon, where it is a common bird, it frequents the coniferous woods, 
being found also in the alders and aspens. Nests were found in oaks and alders by 
Mr. A. W. Anthony. Dr. Merrill says, that these birds about Fort Klamath, Oregon, 
show a marked predilection for pines and firs, but are also found, though much less 
frequently, in aspen groves with Vireo gilvus. The nests and eggs resemble the latter, 
1 Betula lutea, 
