It is reported as a lively and pleasant singer almost as much so as the Red-eye but with a sweeter song. Mr. Smith writes that it sings during May and June, then is silent to August 15, when it again sings till its departure. Mr. Bryan notes it as a beautiful singer and interesting species.
628. V. flavifrons. (Vieill.)
YELLOW-THROATED VIREO.
Flavifrons is reported as being not so common as the Warbling and Red-eyed species. Probably there would be a contest between it and bellii for third rank in numbers. It is perhaps more evenly distributed than the latter and not quite so plentiful where found.
Like most others of its tribe it reaches the state in late April and early May, but the reports indicate that it is somewhat early in its arrival. Its stay seems to be briefer also, since it is reported as being last seen as early as August 10.
The nesting site is chosen at a considerable elevation, usually, though Mr. Law reports one from Dallas county in a hazel bush one foot up. Others mentioned are “in hickory tree fourteen and one-half feet up;” “an oak, twenty-five feet up;” “near the top of a high tree;” “in burr-oak tree twenty feet from the ground;” “ten to fifteen feet up.” “The nest,” says Mr. Peck, “is a beautiful structure. It is covered with lichens much like a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher’s, and is very hard to find.”
Mr. Anderson mentions a nest composed of dry grass, cottony substances, thin pieces of bark and moss, and almost covered with bits of newspaper in two languages; which latter item leads the analytical mind of our correspondent to inquire whether the bird may not possibly be a linguist. The nest was lined with reddish strips of grape-vine bark. This nest was located in the same tree as those of a Robin and Mourning Dove, and contained four eggs of the Vireo and one of the Cowbird.
A nest reported by Mr. D. L. Savage was outwardly composed of spiders’ webs and fibers of wild grape-vine bark, then a coating of newspaper and a lining of fine grass.
The Yellow-throated is “a large, stout species,” robust built, and “the brightest colored of our Vireos.”
While the song is described as being “slow, almost slovenly,” and “with a peculiar languid drawl,” and lacking the animated delivery of olivaceus and gilvus, yet it is much admired by Mr. Heaton, and the bird is considered a fine songster by Mr. Giddings.
The female is a close sitter, leaving the nest reluctantly and even in some cases requiring to be displaced by the hand. It is not averse to making its home near the abode of man. Mr. Wm. Savage reports one pair, who, when robbed of their treasures, presumably by the Blue Jays, tore the old nest to pieces and rebuilt in a tree only six feet from the door of his office and fifteen feet up. He finds one pair every year breeding in a grove of about two acres near the house. He notes, though, that even so close a proximity to the dwelling of man does not free the species from the “piratical tyranny of the Kingbird.”