604 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Nest. —Hung often in dwarf walnut trees, but also box elder, ash, maple, syca¬ 
more, pine, and other trees; made of inner bark and vegetable fibers, lined with fine 
grass stems, rootlets, and plant down, decorated with cocoon cases, web, plant blos¬ 
soms, and sometimes feathers. Eggs: Often 4, white, lightly spotted around the 
larger end with black and brown. 
Food. —Mostly caterpillars. One stomach was full of caterpillars, including 
small green ones, medium sized red ones, and large hairy ones (Bailey). 
General Habits. —The attractive Plumbeous Vireo, whose white 
loral streak and eye ring contrast strongly with its slaty gray plumage, 
and whose gray Quaker garb harmonizes with its sweet rich voice and 
quiet ways, was heard from among the junipers, oaks, and yellow pines 
of the canyons of the Guadalupe Mountains in August. At Lake 
La Jara it was singing loudly in the yellow pines about our camp as 
late as September 18, and the next day the same loud, rich notes 
were heard in the pine woods a few miles beyond. 
At Lake Burford, in 1918, when Doctor Wetmore found them 
common among the yellow pines, by May 26 the males were in full 
song, one of them “ carrying a bit of nesting material about with him 
and singing at the same time . . . They continued in full song 
until the middle of June;” Close family relationships were suggested. 
Some of the call notes recalled the chattering calls of the Yellow- 
throated Vireo, while many notes introduced into the song were similar 
to some of the phrasing used by the White-eyed Vireo. In the Zuni 
Mountains, where Major Goldman found the Plumbeous rather common 
in the higher areas on north slopes and they sang from the tops of 
tall trees, their loud song suggested that of the Yellow-green Vireo of 
Mexico and South America. 
At Chloride, in May, 1916, Mr. Ligon became greatly interested in a 
pair that had made their nest about twelve feet from the ground at the 
end of a long limb of a large box elder opposite his cabin. He says 
that the male spent “most of his time singing, even while on the nest. 
The nest was not being constantly occupied at this time, but at least 
half of the time one of the birds was on the eggs. Generally when the 
female would leave she would fly into the tree where her mate sang 
and twittered about as she hunted food. He would then fly directly 
to the nest, get in it and sing lovingly. When she would come back 
he would turn the nest over to her, and I noticed that he would grow 
impatient at times and leave the nest before she came.” On the 
evening of the fourteenth the nest contained three fresh eggs. “On 
the morning of the sixteenth I had seen three Cowbirds, two males 
and one female, flying about the village. I thought at the time that 
they were hunting nests. About 8 a. m., while writing in the cabin, 
I heard the Cowbirds in the tree, and when I went out I found the 
female and one male Cowbird on the ground eating two of the little 
