246 THE WARBLING VIREO. 



World, and are allied to the Thrushes. " More than twenty 

 species are described in Africa, Asia, and the Indian archi- 

 pelago." One species, the Golden Oriole, migrates into 

 Southern Europe, and occasionally reaches Great Britain 

 and Sweden. They all build very ingenious nests. Our 

 Orioles, of a wholly different type, and peculiar to the 

 New World, especially to Central and South America, are 

 closely related to the numerous Blackbirds of our country 

 all of which are ranked among the Starlings. 



THE WARBLING VIREO. 



From a group of tall maples in a neighboring yard, there 

 comes one of the most delightful warbles ever heard in this 

 locality — that of the Warbling Vireo i^Vireo gilvus). In a 

 series of liquid notes, very fluent and greatly prolonged 

 for the size of the bird, in a smoothly undulating melody, 

 delivered while the bird flits and gleans among the foliage, 

 and in tones so sweet that it would seem as if the air 

 melted in them, the very soul of tenderness and affection is 

 breathed out upon the ear. In one of our rural burying- 

 grounds, not long since, while a casket with the remains of 

 a little child was being lowered into the grave, there mingled 

 with the sobs of heart-broken mourners the inimitably ten- 

 der warble of this bird from a tree-top just above. Never 

 did the melody of bird or man seem more appropriate. It 

 was at once the voice of sympathy and hope in the very 

 presence of death. 



This inimitable melody, like that of some celestial flute 

 or flageolet, never out of time, and never failing to charm, 

 may be heard in our middle districts from the first days of 

 May till the last of September. 



Though common to orchards and shaded front-yards, 

 even in villages and cities, the Warbling Vireo is much 



