"" WHITE-EYED VIREO, OR FLYCATCHER. 307 



bushes when whistled too, and peeping cautiously, came 

 down close to me, looking about with complacent curios- 

 ity, as if unconscious of any danger. In the last week of 

 February, Wilson already heard them singing in the 

 southern parts of Georgia, and throughout that month'to 

 March, I saw them in the swampy thickets nearly every 

 day, so that they undoubtedly reside and pass the winter 

 in the maritime parts of the Southern States. The arri- 

 val of this little unsuspicious warbler in Pennsylvania 

 and New England is usually about the middle of April 

 or earlier. On the 12th of March I first heard his voice 

 in the low thickets of West Florida. His ditty was now 

 simply — ss't (with a whistle) tod toitte loittc we-ivd, (the 

 1st part very quick.) As late as the first week in May, 

 I observed a few stragglers in this vicinity peeping 

 through the bushes ; and in the latter end of the month 

 a pair had taken up their abode in the thickets of Fresh 

 Pond, so that those which first arrive leave us and pro- 

 ceed further to the north. On the 22d of June I heard 

 the male in full song, near his nest, in our neighbourhood, 

 where incubation was going on. His warble was very 

 pleasing, though somewhat monotonous and whimsical. 

 This affectionate note, often repeated, near to his faithful 

 mate while confined to her nest, was like HsMppeicee-wdf 

 say HsMppeioee-wee-ioas-say , sweetly whistled, and with 

 a greater compass of voice and loudness, than might 

 have been expected from the size of the little vocalist. 

 The song is sometimes changed two or three times in the 

 course of twenty minutes ; and I have heard the following 

 phrases ; 'att tsliippeioat hourr, tshippeivat ^wurr ; at an- 

 other time, 'tsliipeioay Hslie 6 et Hslierr. On another visit 

 the little performer had changed his song to ^pip te 

 waigli a tsliewa, with a guttural trill, as usual, at the last 

 syllable. He soon however varied his lay to 'whip te woi wee^ 



