MNIOTILTID/E VIKEONID/E. 
J53 
FAMILY VIREO N I DFE : VIREOS. 
Of our common Vireos, the White-eyed ( V. Noveboracensis Bp.) and 
the Yellow-throated ( V. flavifrons Vieill.) do not appear to belong to 
the mountainous parts of the Catskills. It is not probable that the former 
ever extends, unless it be fortuitously, far into the mountains, but it is not 
unlikely that the latter is an occasional visitant. 
Yireo olivaceus (L.) Vieill. Red-eyed Vireo. 
A common and unremitting songster. 
o o 
Yireo gilvus (Vieill.) Bp. Warbling Vireo. 
This species was noted only at Pine Hill, where its song was fre- 
quent from the elms lining the single village street, and at Big In- 
dian ; both places being in the main valley. 
Yireo solitarius Vieill. Blue-headed Vireo. 
Rather common in rich woods along Birch Creek near Pine Hill ; 
extending, to all appearances sparingly, through the Big Indian Val- 
ley, beyond which it was noted to an elevation of about 2,700 feet. 
Although this species on its migrations inhabits indiscriminately 
the low shrubbery of swamps or the high trees of the woodland, 
here, its preferences were decidedly for the latter situation, and high 
in the most lofty maples several were often to be heard at the same 
time in full song. It seems inconsistent with these arboreal habits 
on its breeding grounds that the nest of this Vireo so often should be 
built low down. One discovered on June 9, 1880, was not seven feet 
above the ground. It was built in the fork of a descending branch 
of a beech tree growing in a lightly wooded depression leading from 
a “ sugar camp,” at the foot of a steep timbered slope. The four 
eggs were perhaps a third incubated. This nest among those of our 
Vireos most resembles that of V. flavifrons. 
Two nests taken by Mr. Pearsall in the Big Indian Valley were, 
one ten the other six feet above the ground, and contained respect- 
ively, on June 5 and 8, three and four fresh eggs. The parent of 
the latter nest sat very closely, and Mr. Pearsall, fearing that by 
suddenly starting the bird from its nest the eggs might be broken, 
found it no easy matter to drive it from its charge. In reference to 
this Mr. Pearsall writes : “ I repeatedly pushed her with a stick, strik- 
ing her sharply on the head, and finally had to bend a twig round 
her neck and lift her off.” 
As long since observed by Nuttall, the song of the Blue-headed 
Vireo partakes of the character of both that of its Red-eyed and 
Yellow -throated cousins. It has the prolonged interrupted warble of 
the former, though more irregular and with greater range and varia- 
