WESTERN BIRDS Vireoa 



FAMILY— VIREONID^: VIREOS. 



Among the most fascinating and at the same time the 

 most tantalizing of our birds are those little olive- 

 plumaged songsters, the Vireos. 



They are fascinating because, though not gay in 

 plumage, they are graceful and trim, and their songs are 

 exquisite, being clear, liquid, and so loud that they seem 

 to come from a larger bird, rather than one scarcely five 

 inches long. They are tantalizing because of their simi- 

 larity in plumage and their restless habit of foraging 

 among the leaves, which makes them hard to identify. 



The difference in the note is the easiest way to tell 

 them, but if you do not know this, or the bird does not 

 give it, you are still in doubt. Some of them might be 

 Flycatchers, or Kinglets, so far as coloring and size go. 

 However, they nearly always sing, or give their harsh 

 call note, as they flit about. This call is a sort of nasal, 

 rasping scold, and is not unlike one sometimes given by 

 the Wrens. It is not a pleasing note and makes one 

 wonder why a bird with the ability to sing so sweet a 

 song need indulge in so rasping a note. 



Though some members of the family are fond of fruit 

 and seeds, for the most part they are insect eaters and, 

 as such, are most beneficial since they like small green 

 caterpillars, grasshoppers, gipsy and brown-tailed moths, 

 various sorts of beetles, katydids, flies, gnats, mosqui- 

 toes, scales, etc. They have a way of flying out from the 

 trees, flycatcher-fashion, thus guarding the air and 

 leaves. And, too, one or other of the several species 

 inhabits pretty much everything in the way of a tree 



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