VIREOS: GRAY VIREO 
601 
Like other vireos, the Stephens is very tame, and the brooding 
female watched by Mr. Willard did not leave the nest until touched. 
GRAY VIREO: Vireo vicmior Coues 
Description. — Length: About 5.G-5.7 inches, wing 2.5-2.6, tail 2.4-2.5, tarsus 
.7-8. Adults: Upperparts and cheeks dxdl gray, faintly tinged with olive-green on 
rump; tail and wings dusky, with light edgings, outside tail feather margined with 
white (except in worn plumage), wings with one indistinct grayish band; lores and 
orbital ring white; underparts dull white, throat and chest tinged with gray, sides and 
flanks tinged with olive; white of belly faintly tinged with sulphur-yellow in fresh 
plumage; under mandible bluish gray. Young: Texture of plumage looser and much 
softer than in adults; gray of upperparts slightly more brownish, white of underparts 
purer, and wing and tail edgings tinged with olive. 
Range. —Southern California, southern Nevada, Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 
Arizona, and southeastern Colorado south to Durango and Lower California. 
State Records. —A breeding colony of the Gray Vireo was found and one taken 
on June 14, 1903, on Pajarito Creek near Montoya, 4,300 feet (Bailey). There is 
no other nesting place known within 200 miles in any direction, and its presence 
there is unexplained. The species occurs regularly in southwestern New Mexico, 
breeding at Silver City June 28-July 2, 1894 (Fisher); and Carlisle (Barrell); a few 
having been seen in summer at Apache (Anthony).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In thorny bushes or trees, 4 to 6 feet from the ground, occasionally sup¬ 
ported underneath or on sides; made sometimes of mesquite bark and loosely woven 
coarse grass, lined with fine grass, but also made of plant fibers, spider web, and 
cocoons, lined with long vegetable fibers and decorated with sagebrush leaves. 
Eggs: 3 or 4, white, sparsely marked with minute dark brown dots, chiefly around 
larger end. 
General Habits. —The Gray Vireo was seen by us at Cuervo and 
was one of the commonest birds found at Montoya. We discovered 
two nests there. One had young, and the other was being brooded 
so closely that I was able to ride up beside the tree and, leaning from 
the saddle, actually stroke the little sitter’s head without driving her 
away from the nest. Such experiences have come to many workers 
among the trustful tribe of Vireos, it is true, but when most birds from 
generations of unhappy experiences fly in terror at our approach, they 
are none the less heartening to remember. 
In their California home in the San Jacinto Mountains, the Gray 
Vireos were found by Grinnell and Swarth preeminently birds of dry 
chaparral, thus conflicting in range with no other vireo. They foraged 
through scrub oak, manzanita, and ceanothus, occasionally into sage¬ 
brush. Here, they say, “a person may follow a bird around for twenty 
minutes, keeping track of it by its oft-repeated song, without catching a 
view of it above the level of the chaparral tops . . . The song ... is 
loud and full-toned, in volume and quality” (1913, p. 293). 
ARIZONA LEAST VIREO: Vireo belli arizonae Ridgway 
Description. — Adult male: Length (skins) 4. 2 inches, wing 2. 2, tail 2. Adults: 
Head , hind-neck , back , and shoulders brownish gray: underparts white, sides faintly 
