THE CONDOR 
A Bi-Monthly Magazine of 
Western Ornithology 
Volume XXII May-June, 1920 Number 3 
[Issued June 8, 1920] 
THE HOME LIFE OF THE WESTERN WARBLING VIREO 
By HENRY J. RUST 
WITH ELEVEN PHOTOS 
ESTS of the Western Warbling Vireo (Vireosylva gilva swainsom) placed 
at elevations low enough for an intimate study of the home life and for 
photographic purposes are not often found in this vicinity (northern 
Idaho), only two having come under my observation in a number of seasons 
afield. 
The first nest was completed when found, June 22, and was discovered by 
the scolding note of the female, she being quite near the nest when I ap- 
proached. It was suspended from the fork of a small spiraea bush five feet 
from the ground, back about ten feet in dense shrubbery along an old roadway 
on the north slope of Tubb’s hill. I visited the nest as often as possible, hoping 
to obtain data on the life history of the bird. 
Everything went along well until the three young were eight days old. On 
the ninth day of their existence the nest was torn from the crotch and found 
lying on the ground nearby; there were no signs of the young, and the parent 
birds were some distance away. Owing to the lateness of the season, July 15, 
probably no further effort toward raising a brood was made by this pair of 
vireos. 
May 24, of last year, while passing along the old roadway about one hun- 
dred yards from where I found the nest first mentioned, I heard a female 
Western Warbling Vireo scolding and soon located her. A bit of plant down 
from a willow catkin in her bill suggested nest building, and after a short 
search I found the first start of the nest in a fork of a small willow. It was 
four and one-half feet from the ground, and consisted of several blades of dry 
2rass woven over and under, back and forth across the crotch, the loose ends 
drooping, with several bits of willow down adhering. 
In the afternoon of the next day the rim was finished and rounded out in 
shape to support the completed nest ; some of the loose ends were woven in and 
out, with a few additional dry grass stems, bits of string and willow down, this 
forming a part of the body of the nest (fig. 17). Two days later, the 27th, the 
