BELL’S VIREO. 311 
foraging for inse¢ts, continually singing while hunting among the branches and flower 
trusses of the shrubs. 
The White-eyed Vireo had its nest in a neighboring thicket, hanging in the extremity 
of a Viburnum dentatum. The nest of the Vireo under consideration, although quite similar, 
was built mostly of plant fibres and Spanish moss, showing nothing of the beautiful 
decoration consisting of lichens and mosses, so peculiar to the nest of the former species. 
Although quite lively, these Vireos showed nothing of the White-eye’s irritable and 
petulant temperament, and their notes were not so expressive and loud. This species 
proved to be BELL’s VirEO, or the “PraiRIE GREENLET,” a tolerably common summer 
resident in all the prairie distri&ts of Texas. In south-western Missouri it is abundant 
in all the prairie districts, dotted with thickets of dwarf oaks and masses of blackberry, 
snow-berry, and hazel bushes, and hedge-rows of osage oranges, and near St. Louis and 
in southern Illinois it seems to be equally common. In northern Illinois it also occurs as 
a rare summer resident. It is a bird of the Mississippi valley region, west to the base 
of the Rocky Mountains. 
Mr. Ridgway gives a very correct description of the song: “.... During a lull 
in the chorus we heard, from the depths of the thickets, a very curious gabbling or 
sputtering song, which was entirely new to us. We hastened to the thicket, and, entering 
it as far as possible, lay in wait for the strange songster to resume his vocal perform- 
ance. In a few moments a little grayish bird carefully approached, flitting cautiously 
from twig to twig, now and then halting, and, after uttering the peculiar notes which 
had attracted our attention, would stretch out his neck and eye us with great curiosity 
and evident suspicion. After observing him carefully to our satisfaction at a distance 
of hardly a rod, we found that he was Bell’s Greenlet. In its habits this species is the 
nearly counterpart of the White-eyed Vireo, inhabiting, like that species, dense thickets 
or brier patches. In Illinois it is confined to the prairie distri€&s, and is almost every- 
where a much less common bird than V. noveboracensis.”’ 
In Iowa it is perhaps the most common species of the genus, frequenting, according 
to Mr. Lynds Jones, the brush fringing the woods or road-sides, where it attaches its 
nest to the hazel bush. The nest is a neat, purse-shaped structure, suspended from some 
horizontal branch of a small tree or shrub, three to four feet from the ground. It is 
built of flax-like fibres and bark-strips, lined with fine grasses and sometimes with 
down, rootlets, hair, and feathers. In south-eastern Texas the very strong black 
fibres of the Spanish moss, resembling horse hair, give the nest a very peculiar and 
substantial appearance. The eggs, usually four in number, are white, sparingly dotted 
with dark umber-brown around the larger end. 
The bird is more retired and shy than its near congener, the White-eye. Its song 
is less distinét and not so frequently heard. ‘‘Their call and alarm notes are not quite 
so harsh, and their song is delivered in a less emphatic manner; an indescribable sput- 
tering, that does not rank it high in the musical scale.” (N. S. Goss.) 
In their food and habits they are quite similar to the White-eye. 
In south-western Missouri I noticed their arrival May 10, and in south-eastern 
Texas about April 20. They leave for their winter home in southern Mexico and 
Central America in September. 
