Vireo, Red-Eyed. ^^ The Preacher" 



Upon the elm tree sprays 



The vireo rings the changes sweet, 

 During the trivial summer days, 



Striving to lift our thoughts above the street. 



Thoreau. 



VlREO, WARBLING 



The vireos, who live on measure-worms and similar 

 morsels, are so exclusively devoted to foliage that they 

 might well be called leaf -birds, and their tints harmonize 

 strikingly with their habits. They may well be known as 

 ''greenlets." 



Florence A. Merriam. Birds Through an Opera Glass." 



There is not a branch of any village maple, no drooping 

 limb of any church-yard elm, no clustered trees upon 

 the common, or stately rows of pines about our houses, 

 but the warbling vireo knows full well; and at home the 

 moment he reaches us, he goes forthwith upon his musical 

 rounds, and, gentle as a spirit though he seems, dealing 

 death to the insect hordes that Nature has here, too, given 



a home The song is not interrupted and out 



of tune like the red-eye's song, and if you hear both . . . 

 you will recognize them, the one as troubled water flow- 

 ing over rocks, the other the quiet ripple of the meadow 

 brooks. 



Abbott. Birds About Us.^' 



The song is a firm, rich, continuous warble with a singu- 

 lar alto undertone. 



Chapman. Handbook of Birds. ^^ 



164 



