250 THE RED-EYED VIREO. 



One now before me is similar to that of the Red-eye. The 

 walls, however, are thicker, the nest deeper, and hence more 

 bulky; also more fully ornamented on the entire outside 

 with a white material — capsules of spiders' nests or cover- 

 ings of some kind of chrysalid — and around the bottom with 

 bits of rotten wood, very porous and almost white, prob- 

 ably bass-wood; the whole having a whitish or yellowish- 

 gray and highly artistic appearance. Another, found June 

 20th, is not any larger than the Red-eye's, but the outside 

 is ornamented with skeleton leaves, fine vegetable fibers, 

 down, capsules of spiders' nests, etc. The eggs, some .75 

 or .80X-55 or .60, therefore rather longish and pointed, are 

 pure white, with a few spots or mere specks of dark brown 

 or black on the large end. 



THE RED-EYED VIREO. 



Certainly in a few days I shall meet in great abundance 

 throughout the forest the Red-eyed Vireo {Vireo olivaceus). 

 Fully six inches long, it appears larger than most of its 

 genus, and while it has the general colors of the Vireos or 

 Greenlets, olive-green above and white or whitish beneath, 

 its ashy crown flanked with a narrow line of black, and its 

 white line over the eye, differentiate it alike from the 

 Warbling and from the Philadelphia Vireo. Keeping, for 

 the most part, in the upper regions of the thick foliage, it 

 almost constantly enlivens the woods with its soft flowing 

 warble; its tones, though "cheerful and happy as the merry 

 whistle of a school-boy," being yet so much softer and 

 sweeter than the Yellow-throats, as to be readily distin- 

 guishable. Its melody, rendered in a spontaneous, absent- 

 minded manner, seems simply a cheerful accompani- 

 ment to business, something thrown in by the way. I 

 know of no bird in our forest which sings so constantly 



