MINOR SONGSTERS. 167 



sweet ; the more so for coining almost always 

 out of a pine-tree. 



The vireos, or greenlets, are akin to the war- 

 blers in appearance and habits, and like them 

 are peculiar to the western continent. We have 

 no birds that are more unsparing of their mu- 

 sic (prodigality is one of the American vir- 

 tues, we are told) : they sing from morning till 

 night, and — some of them, at least — continue 

 thus till the very end of the season. It is 

 worth mentioning, however, that the red-eye 

 makes a short day ; becoming silent just at the 

 time when the generality of birds grow most 

 noisy. Probably the same is true of the rest 

 of the family, but on that point I am not pre- 

 pared to speak with positiveness. Of the five 

 New England species (I omit the brotherly-love 

 greenlet, never having been fortunate enough 

 to know him) the white-eye is decidedly the 

 most ambitious, the warbling and the solitary 

 are the most pleasing, while the red-eye and 

 the yellow-throat are very much alike, and both 

 of them rather too monotonous and persistent. 

 It is hard, sometimes, not to get out of patience 

 with the red-eye's ceaseless and noisy iteration 

 of his trite theme ; especially if you are doing 

 your utmost to catch the notes of some rarer 

 and more refined songster. In my note-book I 

 find an entry describing my vain attempts to 



