LAND BIRDS. 573 
of May, while the larger number do not arrive in the middle counties before 
the 10th of the month. It often lingers well into September, and Wood 
and Frothingham record one killed in Aleona county September 20, 1903. 
Nests with fresh eggs were taken by Trombley, Monroe county, May 22, 
1887; by Dr. Gibbs, at Kalamazoo, June 18, 1879; by Westnedge in 
Kalamazoo county June 5, 1892, by Spicer in Genesee county May 17, 
1888, and by Miss H. H. Wright at Saginaw, several times during the last 
week in May, and on June 9, 1907. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Bill hooked at tip; rictal bristles evident; no spurious first primary; two white wing-bars. 
Adult (sexes alike): Upper parts, from forehead to middle of back, bright olive-green; 
scapulars, lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts ashy-gray more or less tinged with 
olive-green; a conspicuous yellow stripe from nostril to eye, and a yellow ring about the 
eye interrupted in front by a dusky loral spot; sides of head and neck otherwise olive-green; 
entire chin, throat and breast bright yellow, the remainder of under parts abruptly white, the 
flanks sometimes washed with grayish; wings dark grayish, with two conspicuous white 
wing-bars, the tertiaries broadly edged with white; tail dark gray, most of the feathers 
edged with white, narrowly on the outer edges, more widely on inner edges; bill blackish 
above, horn-blue below; iris brown. Young similar to adults, but colors not so bright 
and markings not so sharply defined. 
Length 5 to 5.85 inches; wing 3 to 3.20; tail 2 to 2.30; culmen 40 to .50. 
259. Blue-headed Vireo. Lanivireo solitarius solitarius (Wilson). (629) 
Synonyms: Solitary Vireo, Blue-headed Greenlet.—Muscicapa solitaria, Wilson, 1810. 
—Vireo solitarius, Vieill., 1819, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and most authors.—Lanivireo 
solitarius, Allen, 1869. 
Figure 134. 
Two white wing-bars, white throat and breast, yellow sides and flanks 
and spurious first primary are common to the Blue-headed Vireo and the 
White-eyed Vireo, but the latter has yellow lores and eye-ring, while these 
are white in the Blue-headed Vireo. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America to the Plains, north to Hudson 
Bay and Fort Simpson. South in winter to Guatemala; breeds from 
northern New England and northern part of the lake states northward. 
This beautiful vireo is a not very common spring migrant throughout 
the state, but is rather more abundant in the autumn. It is not known 
to nest in the southern half of the state, unless we 
accept Covert’s statement that he found a nest 
and eggs of this species at Ann Arbor July 4, 1871. 
The builders of this nest, however, were not 
preserved, and we are not aware that the nest has 
ever been reported from any other place in the 
state, although the birds undoubtedly breed in 
the higher portions of the Lower Peninsula, as Fig, 134. Solitary Vireo. From 
well as in parts of the Upper Peninsula. Mr. 0. B. ton, Mieco ee 
Warren states that they are seen all summer about 
Palmer, Marquette county, and the University of Michigan Expedition 
found the species in Ontonagon county July 27, 1904, where, however, 
it may have been migrating at that time. On Isle Royale it was noted 
only during migration, but of course is a summer resident. 
It arrives from the south about the first of May, the earliest record which 
we have being that by Mr. Swales, who found it abundant at Detroit April 29, 
1905. The average date of arrival at Ann Arbor is given by N. A. Wood as 
