The food of this Vireo is chiefly insects, and in the breeding-season is altogether so. Later in the season they mingle with these various kinds of small berries.
The eggs of this species vary from .95 to .88 of an inch in length, and from .65 to .60 in breadth. Their ground-color is white, often with a very perceptible tint of roseate when fresh. In this respect they differ in a very marked manner from the eggs of any other of this genus, except, perhaps, the barbatula, and may thus always be very easily recognized. They are more or less boldly marked with blotches of a dark roseate-brown, also peculiar to the eggs of this species, though varying greatly in their size and depth of color.
This Vireo winters, in great numbers, in Central America, and was largely represented in the collection of Dr. Van Patten from Guatemala. It was also found at Pirico, in Colombia, South America, by Mr. C. W. Wyatt. It occurs in abundance as far to the west as Grinnell, Iowa, where Mr. W. H. Parker found it to be a very common summer resident.
Vireo, Vieill., Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 83. (Type, Muscicapa noveboracensis, Gm.)
Vireo noveboracensis.
29248
Char. Wings short and rounded, a little longer than the tail, equal to it, or shorter. First primary distinct and large, from two fifths to half or more the length of the second, shorter or not longer than the eighth.
Vireo noveboracensis.