Muscicapa olivacea, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 327 (based on Edwards, tab. 253, and Catesby, pl. liv).—Wils. Lanius olivaceus, Licht. Verz. 1823, 49 (N. Amer.). Vireo olivaceus, Vieill.; Bon.; Swains. II.—Aud.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 331.—Samuels, Birds N. Eng. 270. Vireosylvia oliv. Bon. Geog. Comp. List, 1838.—Ib. Consp. 1850, 329.—Reinhardt, Vid. Med. f. 1853, 1854, 82 (Greenland).—Ib. Ibis, III, 7.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1855, 151 (Bogota); 1859, 137, 363 (Xalapa).—A. & E. Newton, Ibis, 1859, 145.—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 12 (Guatemala).—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 1860, 246 (Cuba).—? Ibis, 1864, 394 (Derby, Engl. May, 1859).—Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 333. Phyllomanes oliv. Cab. Mus. Hein. 1850-51, 63.—Ib. Jour. 1860, 404 (Costa Rica).—Gundl. Cab. Jour. 1861, 324 (Cuba; very rare). ? Vireo virescens, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 84, pl. liii (Penna.).—? Gray, Genera, I, 267, pl. lxv. Vireo bogotensis, Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1860, 227 (Bogota).—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1863 (Birds Panama, IV, No. 378).
Vireo olivaceus.
40089
Sp. Char. (No. 1,418 ♂, Carlisle, Penn., May, 1844.) Upper parts olive-green. Top of head, from bill to nape, ash-color. A white line from nostrils above and beyond the eye, bordered above by a dusky line forming the edge of the ashy cap, and below by a similar, perhaps paler, loral and post-ocular cheek-stripe. Beneath, including tibiæ, white, with perhaps a tinge of olivaceous-ash across the breast; the sides of the neck like the back; sides of the body with a faint wash of olive. Axillars and crissum faintly tinged with sulphur-yellow; lining of wings and its edge, the latter especially, nearly white. Quills blackish-brown, edged externally, except at ends of primaries, with olive, internally with white. Tail-feathers lighter brown, edged externally like the back, internally with pale olivaceous-white. Bill dusky above, pale below; tarsi plumbeous; iris red. Length, 6.33; extent of wings, 10.25; wing, 3.33; tail, 2.50.
Female similar, but duller in plumage.
Hab. Whole of Eastern North America (Greenland, Halifax, Fort Simpson), west to base of Rocky Mountains, reaching Fort Bridger, and still farther northward to Bitterroot Mountains and Kootenay; south to Panama and Bogota, in winter (Xalapa only in Mexico); very rare in Cuba (only West Indian locality). Accidental in England. Trinidad. (Finsch.)
Vireo olivaceus.
Habits. The common Red-eyed Vireo is an abundant species throughout Eastern North America, from Florida to Nova Scotia on the northeast, to Lake Winnepeg on the northwest, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains. It apparently breeds wherever found, and in especial abundance in the Central States. It is a familiar and fearless species, often found, like the Warbling Vireo, in the very midst of crowded cities, and making its lively and pleasant notes heard in their public squares and private gardens, amid the ruder sounds of the neighboring streets. It breeds in Texas and Louisiana, at the Southwest, and also in abundance, at least as far as Halifax, in the opposite direction. At Fort Resolution, at the Cumberland House, and at Fort Simpson, the nests and eggs of this species were procured by Kennicott and Ross. A single specimen of the bird has been procured in Greenland, and another accidental specimen was shot in England. Specimens have also been procured in Central America.