72 



WARBLING VIREO— LEAST AND OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS. 



white in color, marked on the round end with a few small dots of 

 reddish or brown. This bird is five and a half inches long, and 

 seven and a quarter broad. 



The Warbling Vireo. {Vireo gilvus.) 



Fig. 9. 



Throughout the most of the United States, this species is gen- 

 erally to be seen in the thick and leafy branches of our tallest trees, 

 in search of food. It is seldom seen in the deep forests. The 

 tall trees along our streets and lanes, secured from his dreaded 

 enemies, afford this exquisite songster ample safety to cheer the 

 inmates of the houses and cottages. " Its voice is not strong, and 

 many birds excel it in brilliancy of execution ; but not one of them 

 all can rival the tenderness and softness of the liquid strains of this 

 modest vocalist. Not born to ' waste its sweetness on the desert 

 air,' the Warbling Vireo forsakes the depths of the woodland for 

 the park and orchard and shady street, where it glides through 

 the foliage of the tallest trees, the unseen messenger of rest and 

 peace to the busy, dusty haunts of men." — Coues. 



The nest, which is usually built in tall trees, is composed of 

 grass, leaves, and strips of grape-vine bark. The eggs, usually 

 four, are white, thinly spotted with reddish-black at the larger 

 end. This bird is five and a quarter inches long and eight inches 

 broad. 



The Least Flycatcher. (Empidonax minimus?) 

 Fig. 10. 



It is singular that a bird so abundant as this is in the Eastern 

 United States should have been overlooked by Wilson and Audu- 

 bon, or, what is more probable, confounded with E. acadicus. 

 Nuttall was perfectly familiar with it, though he thought it was the 

 Acadian Flycatcher. It is very common in the Middle States 

 during the migrations. At Washington, D. C, it usually arrives 

 the last week in April, and is seen for about two weeks only ; it 

 returns the last of August, and loiters through most of September. 

 It breeds abundantly in most parts of New England ; in Massa- 

 chusetts, Mr. Allen found it as numerous as all the other Emj>i- 

 donaces put together. Some individuals press on into the Hud- 

 son's Bay country, and in the West its extension is much greater 

 than that of typical traillii or Jlaviventris, particularly along the 

 Missouri itself, and the Red river, where the wooded river- 

 bottoms afford it congenial shelter. Like others of the genus, it 

 penetrates to Central and Northern South America in winter, and 

 it is also quoted from portions of Mexico. 



It is not ordinarily found in gloomy woods, like E. acadicus, 

 nor even in heavy timber of any kind ; it prefers the skirts of 

 woods, coppices, and even hedge-rows. It is readily distinguish- 

 able from acadicus by this circumstance alone, to say nothing of 

 the several personal peculiarities — so to speak — slight traits, almost 

 impossible to describe intelligently, but which the field-naturalist 

 learns to recognize in a moment. Its usual voice is lower and 

 more plaintive, though one of its call-notes is sharp and jerky ; 

 and its flight is slightly different, owing to the marked difference 

 in the shape of the wing. In all these particulars it comes much 

 nearer traillii and Jlaviventris, as has been already hinted. 



The bird generally nests on a sapling or shrub, within ten or 

 twelve feet from the ground. One nest I reached without climbing, 

 and another was placed on a slender swaying elm, about forty feet 

 high ; these were the extremes of situation I observed. It is al- 

 ways placed, so far as I discovered, in an upright crotch of several 

 forks, preferably between twigs no thicker than a finger. The 

 high nest just mentioned was situated on the bending trunk itself, 

 but it rested, as usual, between a little set of twigs that grew 

 upright, It is very deeply let down into the crotch, and usually 



bears deep impressions of the boughs. The female sets very 

 closely ; one I almost covered with my hand before she fluttered off, 

 although I stood for several moments within a yard of her. On 

 being frightened away, she retreats but a little distance, and flies 

 from one twig to another, uttering a mournful note. The nest is a 

 neat little structure ; if it were only stuccoed with lichens, it would 

 be as elegant as that of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which it scarcely 

 exceeds in size. The basis of the nest is a substantial intertwining 

 of fine fibrous inner-bark, and the decomposing outer substance 

 of various weeds. With this is matted a great quantity of soft 

 plant-down, making a soft yet firm and warm fabric. The interior 

 is finished variously with a special lining of plant-down, confined 

 with a slight layer of horse-hair or the finest possible grass-tops. 

 The brim of the nest is firm and even, with a circular arrangement 

 of the fibers ; inside, the lining is simply interlaced. In size, these 

 elegant structures vary a good deal ; the smallest one before me 

 is under two inches and a half across outside, and less than two 

 deep; another, which was let down very deeply in a narrow 

 crotch, is nearly three inches, both in depth and width, and is 

 quite unsymmetrical. The cavity is quite large for the outside 

 dimensions, in some instances the walls being barely coherent 

 along the track of the supporting twigs ; it is not, or but little, 

 contracted at the brim, and is about as deep as wide. 



The eggs are generally four in number, sometimes only three ; 

 I did not find five in any one of the six nests collected. One con- 

 tained a Cow-bird's egg. The eggs are pure white, unmarked. 

 They vary much in size and shape. Out of twenty examples, a 

 large elongate one measures 0.68 by 0.52 ; a small globular one, 

 0.59 by 0.50 ; a normal one, 0.65 by 0.50. — Coues. 



PLATE L. 



The Olive-sided Flycatcher. (Contopus oorealis.') 



Fig. 1. 



The very general dispersion of this species in North America 

 only gradually become apparent. It was discovered by Sir John 

 Richardson on the Saskatchewan, at Cumberland House, in lati- 

 tude 54 , and described in 1831 by Mr. Swainson, as above cited. 

 It was rediscovered by Mr. Nuttall, a specimen being obtained 

 near Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June, 1830. This gentleman 

 obtained several others in the same vicinity, and described its 

 notes and manners accurately. The nest, he states, was on "the 

 horizontal branch of a tall cedar-tree, forty or fifty feet from the 

 ground. It was formed much in the manner of the Kingbird's, 

 externally made of interlaced dead twigs of the cedar, internally 

 of the wiry stolons of the common cinquefoil, dry grass, and some 

 fragments of branching Lichen or Usnea. It contained three 

 young, and had probably four eggs. The eggs had been hatched 

 about the 20th of June, so that the pair had arrived in this vicinity 

 about the close of May. The young remained in the nest no less 

 than twenty-three days." The same author speaks of the eggs as 

 " vellowish-creamy white, with spots of reddish-brown, of a light 

 and dark shade." This is exactly the character of the specimens 

 before me. The size is about 0.84 by 0.66. About the same time 

 Dr. Brewer communicated a note to Mr. Audubon, describing the 

 nest as follows: " Measures five inches in external diameter and 

 three and a half inches in internal, and is about half an inch deep. 

 It is composed entirely of roots and fibers of moss. It is, more- 

 over, very rudely constructed, and is almost wholly flat, resembling 

 the nest of no other Flycatcher I have seen, but having some simil- 

 itude to that of the Cuckoo." New England quotations have con- 

 tinually multiplied, many referring to the breeding of the bird from 

 Massachusetts northward ; quite lately, Mr. Brewster says, in Mr. 



