BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



at us with frightened eyes, but she remained at her post, 

 and soon learned that we meant no harm. Many times 

 a day we went by her precious cradle. At night we 

 passed quietly, so as not to waken the faithful little 

 mother-bird with her head tucked under her wing. Ouf 

 flashlight never once disturbed her. Mr. Forbush says, 

 "This vireo sleeps very soundly, and is sometimes so ob- 

 livious to the world that she may be approached and taken 

 in the hand." ^ 



Burroughs wrote: "Who does not feel a thrill of 

 pleasure when, in sauntering through the woods, his hat 

 just brushes a vireo's nest?. . . The nest was like a 

 natural growth, hanging there like a fairy basket in the 

 fork of a beech twig, woven of dry, delicate, papery, 

 brown and gray wood products, — a part of the shadows 

 and the green and brown solitude. The weaver had bent 

 down one of the green leaves and made it a part of the 

 nest; it was like the stroke of a great artist. Then the 

 dabs of white here and there, given by the fragments of 

 spider's cocoons — all helped to blend it with the flicker- 

 ing light and shade.' 



" 4 



THE WARBLING VIREO 



Vireo Family — Vireonidce 



Length: About 5% inches. 



Male and Female: Grayish-olive above; indistinct whitish 



line over eye; under parts grayish-white with a faint 



yellowish tinge; no bars on wings; iris dark brown, 



not reddish. 

 Note: A nasal yah, not unlike the call-note of the red-eyed 



vireo. 



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

 205. 

 *From "Under the Maples," by John Burroughs, p. 99. 



[250] 



