THE RED-EYED VIREO 



"He is never fervent, rapid, or fluent, but like a 

 true zealot, he is apt to be tiresome from the long 

 continuance of his discourse. When nearly all other 

 birds have become silent, the little preacher still 

 continues his earnest harangue, and is sure of an 

 audience at this late period, when he has few 

 rivals." ^ 



Mr. Forbush discovered that this preacher "'prac- 

 ticed as he preached," and tells us of his own obser- 

 vations in the following words: 



"One sunny day in early boyhood I watched a 

 vireo singing in a swampy thicket. He sang a few 

 notes, his head turning meanwhile from side to side, 

 his eyes scanning closely the nearby foliage. Sud- 

 denly his song ceased; he leaned forward, — sprang 

 to another twig, snatched a green caterpillar from the 

 under side of a leaf, swallowed it, and resumed his 

 song. Every important pause in his dissertation 

 signalized the capture of a larva. As the discourse 

 was punctuated, a worm was punctured. It seems as 

 if the preaching were a serious business with the 

 bird; but this seeming is deceptive, for the song 

 merely masks the constant vigilance and the sleep- 

 less eye of this premium caterpillar-hunter. In the 

 discovery of this kind of game the bird has few 

 superiors." ^ 



THIS vireo builds a very attractive nest of strips of 

 bark and fiber, a soft basket hung at the fork of a 

 branch. I recall one nest suspended only a few feet from 

 the ground in a low tree on Cape Cod. We came upon 

 the nest so suddenly that the little brooding mother looked 



1 From Wilson Flagg's "Birds of New England," used with permission 



of The Page Co., Boston. t^ ti r u u 



2 From "Useful Birds and Their Protection," by E. H. Forbush, p. 



205. 



[249] 



