FOUR NEIGHBORS DIVERSE 



friend threw a stone at random and almost hit the 

 singer, which darted out over my head and went down 

 into the swamp. Presently it began again to sing and 

 we followed it up. For some time it kept itself con- 

 cealed in the top of another tall pine, but at last it flew 

 down low and gave us a fine view. It was a Blue- 

 headed Vireo. This was in late June and of course the 

 nest was somewhere near by. We made a long, careful 

 search for it, but at last had to give it up and return for 

 suppe?. It proved impossible for me to visit the spot 

 again. 



Another species that is easy to distinguish is the 

 Yellow- throated Vireo. Its bright-yellow throat re- 

 veals its identity in a moment. Though found in 

 woodland, it is quite partial to the shaded street or 

 garden, where it finds delight and food in the tall shade 

 trees, from which it sings away blithely all the day. 

 One of my earliest recollections is of a beautiful nest 

 of this species in our garden in Boston, ornamented 

 with many bits of white paper and cotton and lined 

 with beautiful soft plant down. More latterly a pair 

 built at the extremity of a slender limb of an ash tree 

 quite near a window of my present home. 



The Warbling Vireo is another species which fre- 

 quents the tall shade trees of town or village, or even 

 city. It is a plainly-garbed little bird, perhaps the 

 most demure of all the vireos, greenish above and 

 yellowish white below, without distinct markings. 

 The nest is nearly always inaccessible, and were it not 



200 



