256 THE WHITE-EYED VIREO. 



if the movement that gives the concluding notes of one 

 strain must form the first note of the next. The effect is 

 very rich, and, to my ear, entirely unique. The performer 

 is very careful not to reveal himself in the meantime; yet 

 there is a conscious air about the strain that impresses me 

 with the idea that my presence is understood and my 

 attention courted. A tone of pride and glee, and, occasion- 

 ally, of bantering jocoseness, is discernible. I believe it is 

 only rarely, and when he is sure of his audience, that he dis- 

 plays his parts in this manner." 



" Next after the Warblers, the Greenlets (Vireos) are the 

 most delightful of our forest birds, though their charms 

 address the ear, and not the eye. Clad in simple tints that 

 harmonize with the verdure, these gentle songsters warble 

 their lays unseen, while the foliage itself seems stirred to 

 music. In the quaint and curious ditty of the White-eye — 

 in the earnest voluble strains of the Red-eye — in the tender 

 secret that the Warbling Vireo confides in whispers to 

 the passing breeze — he is insensible who does not 

 hear the echo of thoughts he never clothes in words." 

 (Coues). 



The strictness with which this group of birds is defined 

 as a family, alike in size, structure, color, and habits, is cer- 

 tainly matter for reflection. For instance, how comes each 

 Vireo to build that neat, cup-shaped, pensile nest, so peculiar 

 to the family, and so unlike that of any other bird? Why is 

 a Vireo's ^^^ so unique? or, why should it be fashioned 

 almost as from the same mould, and colored as if by the 

 same brush? Comes all this by chance? Is it simply a 

 self-evolved fact? Is it not rather a bit of that great 

 and exact system of nature, which implies the working 

 out of a perfect plan, after the design of an Infinite Intelli- 

 gence? 



