VIEEONIDJE : VIREOS, OR GREENLETS. 
329 
Tail-feathers widening a little toward the end, the tail thus becoming squarish or fan-shaped; 
even or little rounded at their ends. 
Myiadestin^. — Bill very short, much depressed, widened at base, deeply cleft. Legs 
weak. Tail-feathers tapering, the tail being thus rendered somewhat cuneate, and double- 
rounded at end. 
58. 3IY1ADES'TES. (Gr. ^ula, 
miiia, a fly, and ebeaTrjs, edes- 
tes, an eater.) Fly-catching 
Thrushes. Characters of the 
subfiimily as above given. 
169. M. town'sendi, (To J. K. 
Townsend.) Townsend's Fly- 
catching Thrush. ^ 9 : Gen- 
eral color dull brownish-ash, 
paler below, bleaching on the 
throat, lower belly, and crissum. 
Wings blackish, the inner sec- 
ondaries edged and tipped with 
white, nearly all the quills ex- 
tensively tawny or fulvous at 
the base, and several of the in- 
termediate ones again edged ex- 
ternally toward their ends with the same color. In the closed wing, the basal tawny shows 
upon the outside as an oblique spot in the recess between the greater coverts and the bastard 
quills, separated by an oblique bar of blackish from the second tawny patch on the outer webs 
of the quills near their ends. Tail like the wings (the middle pair of feathers more nearly like 
the back) ; the outer feather edged and broadly tipped, the next one more narrowly tipped, with 
white. A white ring around the eye. Bill and feet black. Eyes brown. Length about 8 
inches; wing and tail about equal, 4.00-4.50; the latter forked centrally, graduated laterally; 
bill 0.50; tarsus 0.75; middle toe and claw rather more. Young: Speckled at first, like a 
very young thrush ; each feather with a triangular or rounded spot of dull ochraceous or 
tawny, edged with blackish. Western U. S., from the eastern foot-hills of the Rocky Mts. 
to the Pacific ; N. to British Columbia. A bird not less strange and unlike anything seen in 
the east than the Phainopepla ; inhabiting woodland and shrubbery, feeding on insects and 
berries, and capable of musical expression in an exalted degree. Nest on the ground or in 
rubbish near it, loosely made of grasses ; eggs about 4, bluish- white, freckled with reddish- 
brown, 0.95 X 0.67. 
14. Family VIREONID^ : Vireos, or Greenlets. 
Small dentirostral Oscines, related to the Shrikes, with hooked 
bill, 10 primaries and extensively coherent toes. Bill shorter 
than the head, stout, compressed, distinctly notched and hooked 
at tip ; rictus with conspicuous bristles ; nostrils exposed, over- 
hung with a scale, but reached by the small bristly erect frontal 
feathers. Toes soldered at base for the whole length of the basal 
joint of the middle one, which is united with the basal joint of 
the inner and the two basal joints of the outer, all these coherent 
Fig. 188. — Warbling Vireo, re- phalanges very short. (Lateral toes unequal in the genus Vireo.) 
duced. (From Tenney.) Tarsus equal to or longer than the middle toe and claw, scutel- 
late in front, laterally undivided, except at extreme base. Wings moderate, of 10 primaries, of 
Fig. 187. — Generic details of Myiadestes (M. townsendi; bill and 
foot nat. size, wing and tail |). (From Baird.) 
