Nesting of the Blue-headed Vireo 
in Massachusetts. 
As with a number of other birds, the Blue- 
headed Yireo (Vireo xolitarius ) has become 
more and more common every year. Although 
we had found several nests of this bird con- 
taining young, we never, until this year, found 
one with eggs. 
Our first find, which resulted in a set of 
eggs, happened in this way. On May r8th we 
took the train for Islington. We had set out 
for the purpose of finding a uest of the Marsh 
Hawk, but, after tramping through a large 
tract of marsh and finding nothing but a nest 
of the Song Sparrow, we decided to go and see 
what a Cooper’s Ilawlc was screaming about in 
a neighboring grove of pines. 
We were not kept long in doubt, for, ten 
minutes after entering the grove, the female 
flow from a nest which was placed about 
twenty-live feet up in a pine. The nest was 
built the same as usual and contained three 
eggs which were about one-third incubated. 
On the ground helow, and in a spider’s web on 
the bottom of the nest, there was a large 
quantity of Cooper’s eggshells that at first led 
us to think that the nest contained young. 
We continued walking through the grove for 
fifteen or twenty minutes when we heard a 
Sharp-shinned Hawk screaming in a decidedly 
suspicious manner. 
We then separated, but were brought 
together again by my brother calling out that 
he thought he had found the nest. I hurried 
to him, and on coming near said i guessed he 
was about right, for the tail feathers of the 
bird were plainly visible over the edge of the 
nest. We could not drive her off until one of 
us climbed up. The nest contained five eggs, 
which were about one-third incubated. Two 
of them closely resembled the eggs of the 
Sparrow Hawk only being of a browner red. 
Now to the point. When within three miles 
of home we heard a Blue-head singing. 
Thinking that he might possibly have a nest 
wc went to interview him, and, on nearing the 
place where we had located him, we saw him 
fly into tlie trees and begin to catch bugs in so 
very unconcerned a manner that lie overdid 
it. Looking where he flew from, we found tlie 
nest which he was building. It was about 
eight feet from tlie ground, in a small dead 
pine, and so close to the trunk that a week 
later, when we collected the nest and a set of 
four eggs, wo were obliged to saw off the tree 
above and below the nest. It is built of dried 
grass, bark, dried leaves and caterpillars nests, 
and well trimmed with green lichens and a 
little wool, it is pensile like all other Vireos, 
and is lined with dried grass and pine-needles. 
The eggs measure as follows: .77x.56, .18 x 
.50, .7fix.57 and .75 x .50. They are white, 
having a tingo of ilesli color with a ring of red- 
dish-brown spots on the larger end and a few 
on tlie sides. 
Another nest, also containing four fresh 
eggs, found on June 9th, was about eight feet 
from tlie ground in tlie lowest branch of a 
thirty-foot live oak. This was in a grove of 
other oaks of tlie same size. This, we think, 
is an exceptional case, ns all our other nests 
were built in coniferous trees. This nest is 
much the same as the other, differing only in 
being a trifle shallower and having birch bark 
and paper in its construction. The eggs are 
much the same in color, having, perhaps, a 
few more spots on tlie sides. They measure: 
.78 x .57, .78 x .58, .79 x .57, .77 x .58. 
As far as tlie locality of the nest is concerned 
the bird’s other name (Solitary Yireo)’ does 
not seem to apply very well, as only one out of 
tlie live nests found by us were more than 
forty or fifty yards from tlie main road, one 
being within twenty feet of it. 
A nest that we found in Dublin, N. IT., on 
June 10, 1891, had young just hatched. It had 
much thicker walls than any other nests we 
have seen, and, as is usually tlie case with 
nests up there, was patched very thickly witli 
birch bark. 
None of our nests were in swampy places or 
near water. 
C. IF. and J. II. Bowles. 
Ponkapog, Mass. 
0.& O Vol.17, July, 1892 p.102 
A Found and took some kind of a 
Vireo ’ s nest; can’t make it out, unless it is the 
Blue-heade. d. I describe it fully, so you can 
assist me. Eggs are % of an inch in length 
and 1 % inches in circumference; the markings 
form a ring around tlie larger end of a 
reddish-chestnut; very fine specks and eggs 
are quite pointed at tlie smaller end. The nest 
outside is composed of fine strips of birch 
hark woven in and out, and inside is lined 
with very fine, dry grass and fine reddish 
colored stalks of some kind of grass or swamp 
moss. Outside of nest measures 1(1 inches in 
circumference by 3 inches in depth; 
inside depth is 1% inches by 2% inches across 
tlie top on tlie inside and 3 inches across tlie 
top on tlie outside. Nest is cup like and 
pensile, and was up about ten feet from tlie 
ground attached by the rim to a dry, forked 
spruce branch, while bottom of nest rested 
and was also attached to a dry limb that ran 
out underneath. I saw tlie on the nest and 
shook branch hard once or twice before she 
would vacate the nest. She was quite tame, 
coming right close up lo me and uttering a 
quivering kind of harsh, quick, jerky sounds ! 
like quee, quee, quee. The bird was more 
stoutly built than the common Red-eyed Vireo 
and had a white line around Hie eye; belly was 
whitish and quite yellow or sulphur colored on 
tlie sides. I did not have my gun or should ' 
have gathered her in; eggs were slightly 
incubated. 
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