8 T HE A U D-O4B ONT 3B UE eae 
sometimes came “churring” while carrying food for them; and one of the 
parents, probably the female, uttered a rapid chee, chee, chee, (etc.) or 
chur, chur, chur, if I touched the young. A caterpillar held in the bill 
was no impediment to the utterance of these notes. 
FIELD DESCRIPTION 
Were it not for its emphatic conversation the Bell’s vireo would indeed 
be an obscure little bird, of dull and merging hues. My impressions of the 
three pairs, observed in the field, may be summarized about as follows: 
Head and neck, above, rather dark fuscous gray; crown darker. Side 
of head unmarked, with the exception that a faint eye-ring may sometimes 
be noticeable, especially above the eye; there is no loral stripe. Iris 
appears black. 
Wing, gray or fuscous, with two narrow whitish (or yellowish) a 
bars; but sometimes only one (or none) is noticeable. Flight-feathers 
margined with pale edgings, making faint streaks in the wing. 
Tail rather more blackish than crown; all feathers same length (but 
folded tail may at times appear slightly forked or notched, due to separation 
of mid-feathers). 
Upper parts: Back gray or fuscous, tinged with yellowish or greenish; 
head more gray and darker; rump more yellowish than torus of back, 
might be called light olive-green. 
Under parts mostly whitish, tinged with yellow; especially yellowish on 
sides and belly. Throat whitish-gray blending into yellowish tinge of breast. 
The male of pair number three showed slightly brighter coloring than 
his mate, but this was noticeable only when the birds were together. 
Excelsior, Minnesota 
FI ft ft 
By the Way 
THE FOLLOWING is taken from a letter written by Dr. T. E. Musselman, 
of Quincy, Illinois, under date of June 13, 1940, to Mr. Edward R. Ford, 
and appeals to us as of general interest: 
“T have an interesting item or two. One is the discovery of a European 
tree sparrow at Hannibal, Missouri, twenty miles south of Quincy. These 
birds were brought to St. Louis years ago, and have remained almost 
constant in that vicinity. A few have strayed into southern Illinois and 
have been recorded at Horseshoe Lake. One was recently recorded at 
Alton, Illinois. 
“I was speaking at Hannibal several weeks ago when one of the 
teachers asked me to identify a bird which had built outside her window. 
She said it looked lke an English sparrow but sang very much better. 
I stood behind the blinds and watched, and sure enough, a male European 
tree sparrow perched on the wire and I had no difficulty identifying him 
because of the complete white collar around his neck and the black ear 
patch on the white on the side of his head. 
“The other interesting item pertains to my prothonotary warbler 
