VIREOS 109 



musical skill, so irritable and ill humored are 

 they that they bear a very bad reputation 

 among bird students. "Impertinent," is the 

 word Mr. Chapman uses in describing them; 

 "saucy" and "querulous" are words often 

 applied to this scold. Yet Mr. Bradford Torrey 

 regards them as possessing much skill in music- 

 al expression. The notes of the bird seem to me 

 in keeping with its character. They are high 

 pitched and emphatic, and it often appears that 

 the bird joins together snatches of the songs of 

 half a dozen singers in a medley that is both 

 highly amusing and remarkably executed. 



This is one of the birds often imposed upon 

 by the Cowbird, for with all its irritable temper 

 it has a tender heart, or else is very stupid, for 

 instead of pitching out of the tiny nest, perhaps 

 already filled with her own eggs, the large egg 

 of this lazy intruder, the little mother will 

 hatch it and care for the fledgling with the same 

 tenderness bestowed upon her own. And it 

 often happens that this larger youngster crowds 

 out of the nest the rightful occupants. Surely 

 the Cowbird has great foresight in the selection 

 of a nest in which to lay her tgg, for she could 

 scarcely find a kinder-hearted mother, with all 

 her shrewish habits of temper. 



The White-eyed Vireo is slightly smaller than 

 the Warbling. The upper parts are bright olive- 

 green with washings of gray. The under parts 

 are whitish, the breast and sides washed with 

 light yellow, and there are two distinct wing 

 bars. The iris is white, and there is a yellow 

 ring around the eye. Its nesting habits are much 

 like those of the Solitary. 



