VIREOS. 313 
button wood, growing in a cafion of the Huachuca Mountains, and was well concealed. 
It is very peculiar looking, being outwardly exclusively composed of a yellowish-buff 
plant down, with similar colored grass-tops incorporated, giving the nest a uniform light 
color, not unlike a very fine cup-shaped sponge. It is lined with the extreme tops of 
grasses, also of a golden tint, and measures externally 2.75 inches in width by 2.50 
inches in depth.” The eggs are pure white, sparsely spotted about the larger end, with 
fine dots of dark umber-brown and brownish-red. 
GRAY VIREO, OR ARIZONA VIREO. 
Vireo vicinior COUES. 
This species inhabits north-western Mexico, western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and 
southern California. Being of very rare occurrence, our knowledge regarding its habits 
is very limited. Mr. W. E. D. Scott found it in 1884 fairly common on the mesas and foot- 
hills of the San Pedro slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains, in Pinal County, Arizona, 
in an altitude of 2,800 to 4,000 feet during the breeding season. Its song he describes 
as clear and liquid in character; it is kept up so continually as to betray, under favor- 
able circumstances, the presence of the male bird, which he believes monopolizes it, even 
a quarter of a mile away. It is composed of single whistling notes, generally delivered 
rather slowly, and seemingly with hesitation, and in an abstracted way, as if the 
performer was thinking the while of other affairs; and yet frequently this sort of 
abstraction seems cast aside, and the same series of notes are given-with a precision 
and brilliancy that calls to mind a fine performance of the Scarlet Tanager, or even of 
a Robin. The bird is exceedingly active, rapidly searching the limbs of trees and bushes 
for food, constantly uttering its clear liquid song. : 
The nests are built in mesquit and other thorn bushes, from four to seven feet 
from the ground. They are like other Vireo nests, composed of coarse dry grasses and 
strips of bark, while the lining consists of fine, dry grasses. Eggs, white, spotted with 
reddish and umber-brown, chiefly at the larger end. 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Colors as in Vireo bellii pusillus, but lores entirely grayish-white, and band across tips of 
greater wing-coverts less distinét (sometimes obsolete), the middle coverts never tipped with white. 
“Length about 5.60 to 5.75 inches; wing, 2.55; tail, 2.47 inches.” (Ridgway.) 
In Mexico and Central America occur a number of other very interesting species of Vireos, which Prof. 
R. Ridgway enumerates in his standard work, ‘Manual of North American Birds.” 
The VERA Paz Vireo, V. propinquus Riwew., is found in the highlands of Guatemala, at Coban and 
Vera Paz. Another, but smaller species, the LARGE-BILLED VIREO, V. crassirostris Bairp, and a variety, the 
YELLow VirEo, V. crassirostris flavescens Ripcw., inhabit the Bahamas. V. ochraceus SaLv., OCHRACEOUS 
VirREO, is an inhabitant of southern Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, while Bairp's Vireo, V. bairdii 
Riwew., occurs in the island of Cozumel, Yucatan. The Pae Vireo, V. pallens SaLv., seems to be a common 
bird on the west coast of Nicaragua-and Costa Rica. Another, the YELLow Vireo, V. hypochryseus Scxat., 
is a native of Mexico, from Oaxaca to Tres Marias. In Cuba we find the CuBan Vireo, V. gundlachi Les. 
Almost all these species are small and closely allied to our White-eyed and Bell's Vireo. 
40 
