BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. ,1^ 



193. Vireo noveboracensis (Gmel.). 

 White-eyed Vireo. White-eye. 



Formerly a common summer resident, but fast becoming one of our rarest birds. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 2, 1890, a pair seen, Belmont, W. Faxon. 

 May 8 — September 20. 

 September 27, 1890, one male seen, singing. East Lexington, W. Faxon. 

 October 30, 18 — , seen and heard, Cambridge, T. Nuttall.i 



nesting dates. 

 June I — 10. 



Up to about 1880 White-eyed Vireos bred regularly and rather commonly 

 in a dozen or more localities within the Cambridge Region. I have found their 

 nests and eggs in the Fresh Pond Swamps, along the course of Clematis Brook, 

 at Rock Meadow and in the springy runs to the westward of Arlington Heights. 

 In 1885 I began to note a falling off in the numbers of the birds, which has 

 continued steadily ever since. During the past decade they have become so 

 scarce that no one, so far as I can learn, has met with more than two or three 

 pairs in the course of a single season. I am at a loss to account for this 

 decrease, unless by the theory advanced on pages 62-64 of the Introduction to 

 the present Memoir. If the White-eyes have not returned to regions lying 

 further to the southward from which they were originally driven by overcrowd- 

 ing, I cannot understand what has become of them. They have never been 

 seriously molested by our local collectors and most of their former resorts 

 remain practically unchanged, while it is not likely that the birds can have suf- 

 fered heavy losses during migration, for in that case they would have abruptly 

 ceased to visit us, instead of disappearing slowly and gradually. During the 

 years of their comparative abundance their favorite summer haunts were briery 

 thickets covering swampy or very moist ground, but scattered pairs were occa- 

 sionally found nesting in upland pastures among barberry bushes or other low- 

 growing shrubs. I have never known the White-eyed Vireo to visit the more 

 densely populated parts of Cambridge, even at its seasons of migration. 



1 T. Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada. The Land Birds, 

 ed. 2, 1840, 348-349. 



