In the winter months this species retires to the more southern States, and to Mexico and Central and South America, though Sumichrast does not give it as occurring in the Department of Vera Cruz. Nuttall found it in South Carolina in the middle of January, and Wilson met with them in full song in Georgia in February. The fact that it was seven weeks after this before they made their appearance in Pennsylvania is given by that writer as evidence of the gradual progression made by this species in its movements northward, regulated by the development of the season. Audubon, however, states the first of March as about the time of its first appearance in Louisiana. He also mentions that this species is a constant resident in the Floridas during winter, and also in the lower portions of Alabama and Georgia. A large number also pass farther south, as is shown by the abundance of the arrivals in early spring on the coast of Texas. Mr. Audubon states also that Townsend met with them on the Columbia River, and that he himself found them along the coast in Maine, Nova Scotia, and Labrador. This, however, I am inclined to consider a misstatement, as they have not since been detected either west of Dakota or north of the 42d parallel.
This Vireo is one of the most conspicuous singers of this family. Its songs are more earnest and louder than those of any of our Eastern species, and exhibit the greatest variations, beginning in the earlier part of the season with a simple low whistle, but changing in May into a very quaint and peculiar succession of irregular notes. Some of these are very softly and sweetly whistled, while others are uttered with a vehemence and shrillness that seem hardly possible in so small a bird.
This is an unsuspecting and familiar bird, permitting a near approach, and when whistled to will often stop and eye you with marked curiosity, and even approach a little nearer, as if to obtain a better view, entirely unconscious of any danger. This is not so, however, when they have a nest. On this occasion they exhibit great uneasiness when their nest is visited, approaching very near to the intruder, looking down upon him with marked expressions of uneasiness, and scolding all the while with great earnestness, and with a hoarse mewing that is very peculiar. This display is continued even after the fledglings are full grown and able to take care of themselves.
The food of this species in early summer is almost exclusively small insects, which it gleans with great assiduity. In Eastern Massachusetts, like all its kindred, it feeds eagerly upon the young larvæ of the destructive canker-worm, and doubtless, in the wilder portions of the country, is of considerable service in restricting the increase of this scourge.
The White-eyed Vireo may usually be found in wild, swampy, open grounds, near the edges of woods, and where there are small thickets of smilax and other briers and wild vines, in the midst of which it often builds its pensile nest. These nests are rarely, if ever, more than three or four feet from the ground. Two nests of this bird, one from Neosho Falls, Kansas,
the other from Lynn, Mass., may be taken as characteristic of the species. They are almost exactly hemispherical in shape, their height and diameter being the same,—three inches. They were suspended from low bushes, hanging from the extreme ends of the twigs, among which the nests were fastened by fine impacted masses of wood-mosses, which are very nicely and elaborately interwoven with the lower portions of the outer covering of the nest. The latter is composed of a singular medley of various materials, among which may be noticed broken fragments of dry leaves, bits of decayed wood and bark, coarse blades of grass, various vegetable fibres, lichens, fragments of insects, mosses, straws, stems, etc. These are all wrapped round and firmly bound together with strong hempen fibres of vegetables. Within this outer envelope is an inner nest, made of the finer stems of grasses and dry needles of the white pine, firmly interwoven. For the size of the bird, these nests are proportionally larger and deeper than any others of the common kinds. The cavity is two or two and a half inches deep.
The eggs are usually five in number. One from Georgia measures .77 by .55 of an inch, and is of an oblong-oval shape; another, from Massachusetts, is much more broadly ovate, measuring .80 by .62. Their greatest breadth is .65 of an inch, and their length .80. They have a clear crystal-white ground, spotted about the larger end with fine dark-purple and reddish-brown dots.
This species is one of the most common foster-parents of the Cowbird, the eggs of which are always tenderly cared for, and the offspring nurtured by them, always to the destruction of their own nestlings.
Vireo huttoni, Cassin.
HUTTON’S VIREO.