The Solitary Vireos 
ness and pity as does the cuddling confidence of a baby bird. You would 
not harm the tiny creature for the world. On the other hand, nothing is 
more irritating—at times fairly maddening—than the frantic efforts of 
some bantling to escape at all hazards. No delicacy of overture, no titila- 
tion, no proffered finger-hold will appease him. You are an ogre and he 
will escape, if it be with but a single feather. Suggestion is a powerful 
influence, even though it come from a bird, and it takes a real saint to 
live down an ogre reputation. 
No. 115 
Solitary Vireo 
No. 115a Cassin’s Vireo 
A. O. U. No. 629a. Lanivireo solitarius cassini (Xantus). 
Synonyms.— Cassin's Solitary Vireo. Western Blue-headed Vireo. 
Description. — Adult male: Top and sides of head deep mouse-gray, the pileum 
glossed with olivaceous; a supraloral stripe and conspicuous narrow eye-ring, white, 
the latter interrupted by bluish dusky of lower lore; remaining upperparts mouse- 
gray, increasingly tinged posteriorly with bright olive-green; wings and tail dusky 
with edgings of greenish yellow; the edge of the wing, the tips of middle and greater 
coverts (forming two conspicuous transverse bars), the edges of the tertials and extreme 
tips of the secondaries, the rectrices upon extreme inner edges and tips, and the outer¬ 
most pair of rectrices on the outer edge, white or yellowish white; chin, throat, breast, 
and belly (centrally), and the under tail-coverts, pure white; the sides of breast shading 
into color of upperparts; the sides and flanks mingled olivaceous and pure greenish 
yellow; the crissum, especially on sides, axillars, and lining of wing, light greenish 
yellow. Bill black; feet deep plumbeous; iris, brown. Adult female: Like male, 
but somewhat duller in color, the gray of head more brownish. Immature: Color 
of head, scarcely different from that of remaining upperparts, dull olive-brown; supra¬ 
loral space, orbital ring, and underparts strongly tinged with brownish buffy. Length 
about 139.7 (5-5°); wing 72.2 (2.84); tail 52.2 (2.06); bill 10 (.39); tarsus 19 (.75). 
Recognition Marks. —Warbler size; slaty gray head, contrasting with olivaceous 
back; narrow white eye-ring distinctive; voice has more of an edge than that of 
V. olivacea; whitish wing-bars and varied tertials as compared with V. g. swainsoni; 
more olivaceous than L. s. plitmbeus. 
Nesting. — Nest: A semi-pensile basket of woven bark-strips, grasses, and 
vegetable fibers, variously ornamented externally with white flower-petals, spider- 
cases, bits of paper, and the like; lashed to fork of horizontal or descending bough of 
sapling (oak, maple, fir, etc.) at a height of from 5 to 30 feet; bulkier and of looser 
construction than that of most other vireos; measures inches across by inches 
deep inside; walls often of an inch in thickness. Eggs: 3 to 5, usually 4; white 
or creamy white, sparingly marked with spots, which vary from rich red-brown to 
almost black; but unmarked eggs are of record. Av. size 19 x 13.9 (.75 x .55). Season: 
May-July, according to elevation; one brood. 
Range of Lanivireo solitarius. —North America, breeding from Great Slave 
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