VIREOS: WESTERN WARBLING VIREO 
605 
eggs. The other male was sitting on the edge of the nest. I ran 
them away and found that the nest contained but one egg. I am of 
the opinion that these eggs were destroyed to make room for an egg 
of the Cowbird, although she failed to lay in the nest that day. I 
did not see the Vireos about until the next morning, and I expect they 
will abandon the nest” (MS). 
In the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona, where Mr. Willard found 
the birds nesting commonly from 4,000 to 9,000 feet in the canyons 
and on the ridges, he had an interesting experience illustrating the 
remarkable tameness of the vireo family. Pie says, “Both parents 
are veiy brave when on the nest, the male more so than the female. 
A nest was found May 31, 1907. It was forty feet up in a maple, 
one of the few instances where the nest was placed well up from the 
ground. The female sat close as I worked with my rope trying to get 
within reach. Just as I was about to reach the nest the male flew 
down and the female relinquished her guard to him. He pecked my 
finger as I reached out, and settled down close into the nest. I poked 
him but he refused to leave and sat with mouth wide open ready to 
repel the invader. I tried slipping my finger under him, but he did 
not budge. Then 1 took him by both sides of his open beak and 
lifted, but he hung onto the bottom of the nest with his feet. Non¬ 
plused, I desisted for a few moments, debating how to get a view of the 
contents of the nest. While doing this he decided that he had done 
enough, hopped off, and flew into a neighboring tree. He deserved 
his treasures, so, after one peep at the three eggs, I untied my ropes 
and descended” (1908, p. 231). 
Subgenus Vireosylva 
WESTERN WARBLING VIREO: Vireo gilva swamsoni Baird 
Description. — Length: 4.7-5.4 inches, wing 2.5-2.8, tail 2-2.3, bill from nostril .3, 
tarsus .6-.7. Adults: Upper parts dull olive-gray , back more olivaceous, tail and 
wings brownish gray with pale edgings, inner webs of feathers edged with white; 
long stripe over eye, grayish , median underparts usually white, sides shaded with 
olivaceous. Young in juvenal plumage: Upperparts largely buffy grayish, wings 
with one indistinct brownish or olivaceous band; eye streak dull whitish; underparts 
dull white medially, olive or yellowish on sides and flanks. 
Range. —Breeds in Canadian, Transition, and Upper Austral Zones from 
northern British Columbia, southwestern Mackenzie, and northeastern Alberta 
south to northwestern Nebraska, western Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, northern 
Sonora, and southern Lower California; winters south to Guatemala. 
State Records. —During its New Mexico breeding season the Western Warbling 
Vireo is confined to the mountains, ranging across the State north and south and 
occurring east to the Sacramento Mountains—Cloudcroft, July 17, 1901 (Fuertes); 
Capitan Mountains, July and August, 1903 (Gaut); Glorieta, 7,500 feet; common 
July 7-10, 1903, in Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the Pecos and Taos regions 
(Bailey); [June-July, 1919, rather common over the entire Sangre de Cristo Range, 
