333 



FAMILY XX.*— VIREONIN^E. GREENLETS. 

 Genus I-t—VIREO, VielL GREENLET. 



BELL'S VIREO OR GREENLET. 



Vireo Bellii, Aud. 

 PLATE CCCCLXXXV.— Adult Male. 



On the same day that Harris' Finch was procured, Mr. J. G. Bell, who, 

 as I have already said, accompanied me in my journey to the Yellow Stone 

 river, &c, shot one of the species which I am now about to describe, and 

 which I have named, it being also a new and hitherto undescribed species, 

 with great pleasure, after Mr. Bell; the more especially as Mr. Bell is 

 himself a person who possesses a good general knowledge of our birds, and 

 was an excellent companion in our not unperilous rambles. 



This species, like other Vireos of the smaller class, is usually found in the 

 bottom lands along the shores of the Upper Missouri river, from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Black Snake Hills as far as we went up that river; finding 

 it in many instances, whether in the bottom lands, overgrown with low 

 shrubbery, or along the borders of ravines that discharge the water accumu- 

 lating during the spring meltings of the snows that cover the upper country 

 prairie land. In its habits it is probably more nearly allied to the White- 

 eyed Vireo ( V. noveboracensis J than to any other; as although it does not 

 possess all the swiftness of movement and quaint look exhibited by that 

 species, still it evinces all the movements usually observable in birds of this 

 family. 



We never found its nest, although it doubtless breeds in the countries 

 which we traversed; as on many occasions, and during the very heat of 

 summer, we found it as far up the Missouri river as Fort Union, one of the 

 principal and handsomest factories of the American Fur Company. 



Bell's Vireo or Greenlet, Vireo Bellii, Aud. 



* See vol. iv. p. 140. t Ibid. 



