LAND BIRDS. 565 
AA. Without a spurious first primary. D, DD. 
D. Two white wing-bars, throat bright yellow. Yellow-throated 
Vireo. No. 258. 
DD. No white wing-bars. E, EE. 
E. Throat pure white, wing over three inches. Red-cyed Vireo. 
No. 255. 
EE. Throat pale yellow, wing less than three inches. Philadelphia 
Vireo. No. 256. 
255. Red-eyed Vireo. Vireosylva olivacea (Linn.). (624) 
Synonyms: Red-eyed Greenlet, Little Hang-nest, Preacher—Muscicapa olivacea, 
Linn., 1766, Wilson, 1810, Bonap., 1824.—Vireo olivaceus, Nutt., Aud., A. O. U. Check- 
list, 1886, and most authors. 
Plate LVII and Figures 132, 133. 
In living or freshly killed birds the red iris is distinctive. Other points 
are the absence of wing-bars, lack of spurious first primary, large size, 
and pure white under parts. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America, west to Colorado, Utah and British 
Columbia; north to the Arctic regions; south in winter from Florida to 
northern South America. Breeds nearly throughout its North American 
range. 
All things considered this is probably our most abundant vireo and it 
is found as a summer visitor everywhere throughout the state, being much 
more abundant, however, in some sections than others. 
In the southern part of the state it arrives from the 
south about the first of May (Detroit April 28 to May 
7, Swales) ; in the northern part from two to three weeks 
later; and departs in early September. In the southern 
part of the state it lingers late in the fall, most individuals ; 
tarrying until after the middle of September and occa- — ,,, Ep oe 
sionally well into October. Mr. Swales noted one near ; 
Detroit October 16, 1899. This is one of the birds which often meets 
death at the lighthouses along the lakes and there are fourteen records 
of such disasters at Spectacle Reef, in Lake Huron, the autumn dates 
ranging from September 10, 1895 to October 7, 1893. 
It nests everywhere in the state and the neat cup-shaped swinging nest 
is a familiar object on the bare trees and bushes of midwinter and has 
given the bird the common name of “Little Hangnest.”” It seems probable 
that at least two broods are reared in a season, since in the Lower Peninsula 
fresh eggs may be found from about May 20 until late in June, while oc- 
casional nests are found all through July and sometimes in August. Peet 
found a pair feeding nearly full grown young July 14, 1905, on Isle Royale. 
The nest is placed usually within a few feet of the ground, often within 
arm’s reach, but occasionally twenty or twenty-five feet up. It is always 
pensile, usually hung in the lateral fork of a small twig, and commonly 
in plain sight. It is built of various flexible materials, largely strips of 
bark, fibres from weed stems or various grasses, and is lined with finer 
plant fibres and fine leaves and grasses, often with pine needles. The 
exterior is often decorated with egg cocoons of spiders, bits of caterpillars’ 
silk, pieces of birch bark, and even fragments of paper and other con- 
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