560 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVIII. 



only records of specimens fall in September, 1849, but he 

 records martins seen by other people three times, viz.: August, 

 1847 (p. 26); September 19th, 1850 (p. 193); and April 24th, 

 1851 (p. 212). 



63 lb. Vireo Jioveboracensis bennndianus (Bangs and Bradlee). 

 Bermuda White-eyed Vireo ; " Chick-of-the-village." — This bird 

 ranks with the Cardinal and the Catbird in point of numbers ; 

 everywhere that one goes, he hears its characteristic song, trans- 

 lated into "chick-of-the-village" by the negroes. Bangs and 

 Bradlee (: 01, p. 253) say, "The iris in V. bermudianus is zvhite 

 as in V. noveboracensis, and not "brownish, brownish gray, or 

 gray," as stated by Capt. Reid. This seems to me to be a very 

 hasty conclusion, as I have never seen a Bermuda Vireo with a 

 pure white eye. The birds are very tame and familiar, and I 

 made it something of a point to look at the iris whenever a good 

 opportunity offered, with the result that I saw just two speci- 

 mens with " dirty white " irides, and these had every appearance 

 of being young birds. The irides of all the other birds of which 

 I took note were dark. 



Reid ('84, p. 192) says, " It is on record that the newly fledged 

 young of this species have been found entangled in the meshes 

 of the web of the « silk ' spider, Epeira [Epeira] clavipcs. These 

 webs are of great size and strength, extending for many feet 

 between adjoining cedars, and the number of them among the 

 woods in summer and autumn is almost incredible. In all my 

 rambles, however, I never met with an instance of poor little 

 Vireo having walked into Epeira's parlor." 



On the twenty-ninth of July I saw, at the edge of the man- 

 grove swamp at Hungry Bay, a Vireo with a large mass of cob- 

 web on the side of its head, completely covering the right eye. 

 The left eye only was used, which necessitated the bird's turn- 

 ing on its perch in order to watch us, instead of simply turning ^ 

 its head. 



704. Galcoscoptes carolincnsis (Linn.). Catbird; " Black- 

 bird."— K.xtremely common throughout the islands. During 

 my stay in Bermuda I did not once hear the "mew" which 

 i;ivcs the c:atbird its name, and the song and the other notes 

 of the Bermuda Catbirds sounded to me not quite identical with 

 those of United States birds 



