68 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN". 



the lofty tree tops with the Warbhng Vireo, but in the dense 

 shrubbery of the Synopsis, and their httlc basket-shaped hang- 

 nests are well hidden, several feet from the ground and pro- 

 tected from above by foliage. 



Bell's Vireo looks like a small edition of the Warbling Vireo; 

 in coloration the resemblance is confusing, but besides the 

 smaller size and totally different song it is its habitat which 

 distinguishes it at once. It seldom leaves the deepest recesses 

 of a thicket and even while singing tries to keep out of sight. 

 Its song can not be compared with that of the Warbling Vireo 

 and is inferior to all Vireo songs of our region, but as with 

 other poor singers, it makes up by diligence what it lacks in 

 melody. The song is so short and rapidly emitted that its 

 delivery, although composed of twelve distinct notes, con- 

 sumes only one second, but by actual timing seventeen dehv- 

 erances in a minute is no unusual performance and may be 

 kept up for many minutes at a time to be repeated through- 

 out the day. BelFs Vireo has its center of distribution, or 

 what may be called its original home from whence it spread 

 into the Mississippi Valley, on the western plains, and is there- 

 fore not put out like most other songsters by our scorching 

 July and August weather, seeming rather to enjoy it, if we 

 can judge by the prolongation of its song period through 

 these months. 



YELLOW WARBLER. Dendroica aestiva. 



This is the wild canary of the boys, or rather one of the two, 

 since the Goldfinch is also called by that name in spite of its 

 black cap and black wings and tail. The Yellow Warbler, 

 also known as Summer Yellowbird, has nothing in common 

 with the Canary except that it is entirely yellow and is of 

 about the same size. While the Canary belongs to the nearly 

 cosmopolitan Sparrow family, the Yellow Warbler is a mem- 

 ber of the strictly American insectivorous family of Wood 

 Warblers. Neither in its ways, nor in its voice, has it any- 

 thing in common with the Canary. Its song is a sprightly, 

 but simple, lay, repeated for hours and days without any modi- 

 fication, but full of indescribable happiness, which fits splen- 



