418 



NESTS AND EGGS OF 



my cabinet, from Banning, San Gorgonla Pass, California, do not differ at all from 

 those of the Loggerhead and "White-rumped Shrikes. They exhibit the same varia>- 

 tions in size and coloration. 



[623.] BLACK-WHISKERED VIKEO. Vireo calidris larhatulus (Cab.) 

 Geog. Dist. — Cuba, Bahamas, and casually to Southern Florida. 



This bird, which is common to Cuba and the Bahamas, Is entitled to a place in 

 our avifauna on account of its occasional occurrence in Southern Florida; it has 

 several times been taken in the region of Charlotte Harbor. From the supposed re- 

 semblance of its notes, it is called Whip-tom-kelly. The bird looks very much like 

 the Red-eyed Vireo, but has a longer bill and other characteristics which distinguish 

 It. Like other Vireos, the Long-billed Greenlet builds a beautiful, pensile, cup-like 

 nest, which is attached by the brim and suspended from forked twigs in trees and 

 bushes, ranging in height from five to twenty feet. The materials used in Its con- 

 struction are dry grasses, shreds of bark, cotton, lichens, and spider's web; the lining 

 being soft cotton-like fibres. The walls of the structure are not only very thick, 

 but neatly and firmly interwoven. The eggs are three or four in number, white, 

 with a pinkish hue, speckled and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with reddish- 

 brown. The average size is .78x.55 inches. 



624. RED-EYED VIREO. Tireo olimceus (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— Eastern 

 North America, as far north as Hudson Bay, etc. ; west to the Rocky Mountain region; 

 south in winter through Eastern Mexico and Central America to Northern South 

 America. 



The Red-eyed Greenlet is a common species in Eastern United States, where it 

 breeds abundantly in the months of May and June. It frequents woodland and is 

 especially fond of sycamore groves along streams. A tireless, joyful songster, sing- 

 ing throughout the day nearly all summer 

 long. Its voice is often the only sound 

 heard in the woods in sultry summer days. 

 Compared with the song of the Warbling 

 Vireo, it is shorter, louder, and more vigor- 

 ous. The nest of this species is built in 

 the horizontal branches of trees, usually 

 from five to twenty-five feet above the 

 ground, sometimes much higher. Like 

 other nests of the birds of this family, it is 

 pensile — ^a beautiful little well-woven, 

 pendulous cup, its rim being attached to a 

 horizontal fork of a branch in the thick 

 foliage. It is made of vegetable fibres, 

 strips of pliable bark, etc., lined with fine, 

 round grasses, sometimes mingled with 

 horse hairs and bits of newspapers. On 

 two occasions I have found the nest con- 

 taining two or three eggs before the frame- 

 work was nearly completed— in fact the nests in both cases were not ready for the 

 reception of the eggs, and were finally completed by the female with material carried 

 by the male bird. Three or four eggs are generally laid, rarely five, pure, white, 

 sparsely sprinkled with fine, dark reddish-brown dots, chiefly at the larger end. 



624. Red-kved Vireo (After Audubon). 



