7 
306 WHITE-EYED VIREO. 
The song is seldom interrupted, except during the moments of swallowing a 
beetle or a moth, or carrying it to the female or young. On warm May and June days, 
when dark clouds suddenly shut out the sun, and the rain patters on the leafy roofs, 
under which other birds silently shelter themselves, the White-eyed Vireo cheerfully 
continues its song. Only when the rain lasts for hours in succession, this lively bird 
silently seeks shelter in the thickets, overgrown with smilax and other briers and 
wild vines. Dark threatening weather, storm, thunder and lightning will not interfere 
with its singing anymore than with that of the Red-eye, and after a protracted rain, 
while the trees are still dripping, the song is heard again, 
Being a peculiar and very inquisitive bird, the White-eyed Vireo is easily recognized 
wherever it is found. If in the Eastern part of our country the observer passes in June 
through lowlands, where white swamp honey-suckles (clammy azaleas), pinxter flowers 
(purple azaleas), flame-colored azaleas, viburnum and dogwood bushes and other shrubs 
‘grow in profusion, he will soon notice this Vireo, which is at once attracted by any 
unusual object. He often approaches with utter fearlessness, very quietly to within a 
few steps, eying the intruder, turning its head, apparently listening, from one side to 
the other. 
The food of this Vireo consists of all kinds of inseéts that live on the leaves, 
flowers, and bark of shrubs and small trees. Like “‘all its kindred, it feeds eagerly upon 
the young larve of the destructive canker-worm.”’ 
In south-eastern Texas it arrives from its winter home usually March 15. Several 
way pass the winter in sheltered localities on the bayous of southern Louisiana and 
south-eastern Texas, but the majority moves farther south. In the valley of the lower 
Rio Grande, in Bermuda and Florida it is a permanent resident. In the latter part of 
April I observed them in south-western Missouri, and in northern Illinois their arrival 
was made about May 15. They winter from the Gulf States southward to Guatemala. 
A variety of this species, the Key West Vireo, Vireo noveboracensis maynardi 
BREWSTER, inhabits the island of Key West, Fla. 
NAMES: WHITE-EYED VirEO, White-eyed Greenlet, Little Green Hanging-bird, ‘‘Chickty-beaver,”’ ‘‘Politician”’ 
(Wilson), Hanging Flycatcher (Latham), Green Flycatcher (Pennant).— Buschvireo (German). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Muscicapa noveboracensis Gmel. (1788). VIREO NOVEBORACENSIS Bonap. (1821). 
Muscicapa cantatrix Bartr. (1791). Vireo cantatrix Wils. (1810). 
DESCRIPTION: Above, bright olive-green, usually tinged, more or less, with ashy on the hind-neck. Below, 
white, the sides of breast and belly, the axillars and crissum, bright sulphur-yellow; a bright sulphur- 
yellow line from nostril to and around eye; lores, dusky; two conspicuous yellowish wing-bars; 
inner secondaries broadly edged with yellowish; bill and feet, dark plumbeous, Eyes, white. 
Length, 4.50 to 5.00 inches; wing, 2.42; tail, 2.00 inches. 
