The Red-Eyed VireO {Vireosylva oUvacea) 



By Herman C. DeGroat 



Length : 6 inches. 



Range : Eastern N. A., west to Colorado, Utah and British Columbia ; nest, 

 on branches of trees, 5 to 25 feet up ; eggs, three or four. 



Food : Insects, berries, wild fruits. 



The red-eyed are the most abundant of the many kinds of Vireoes. Coming 

 from the tropical isles and South America early in May, they are numerous in 

 the Northern States and Southern Canada. Shady forests are most attractive 

 to them, yet they frequent parks and tall trees about farms and gardens, and 

 enter cities and towns wherever trees are abundant. 



They are strictly insectivorous in their habits and, therefore, very helpful. 

 Throughout the entire day they search for insects and caterpillars on leaf and 

 twig and limb of every kind of tree found in lawns, orchards and forests. 



The song of this Vireo is cheerful and constant through all kinds of weather. 

 John Burroughs says : "Rain or shine, before noon, or after, in the deep forests 

 or in the village grove, where it is too hot for the Thrushes, or too cold and 

 windy for the warblers, it is never out of time or place for this little minstrel to 

 indulge his cheerful strain." Given in soft whistling tones with rising and falling 

 inflections, the song suggests the bird's name, for it seems to say vireo, vireo, vireo. 

 This is given without apparent effort and quite unconsciously, as the birds flit 

 from tree to tree. 



On the rim of a little ravine, where a brook ran through a corner of the 

 forest, a pair of twin trees stood just far enough apart to give a seat between 

 them. Sitting there, a bush or two close by, the birds appeared not to know 

 me but as a part of nature. 



Near this seat was a maple which, with a bit of territory about it, was 

 the home of a pair of Red-eyed Vireos. Every, year, spring after spring, she 

 made her nest in a certain fork at the tip of a low branch ; every year, in May 

 and June, the father bird guarded the little space about it. He was glad when- 

 ever the Wood Pewee came across his boundary; for then he could display his 

 valor — 'and all the time how he would sing! 



The first thing the mother did about her nest was to wind the twigs at the 

 base of the fork with spider's web till soft and fluffy. Next came the bridge 

 across the open side of the fork. Back and forth moved the little head as she 

 passed the silken stuff"; fastening it each time with her saliva to the fluffy web 

 on the twig. The web for two drooping hammocks must be gathered, and hung 

 in such a way as to cross each other — a day's work in each hammock. Then, 

 comparatively, the rest was soon done — the web in the hammocks spread ; the 

 soft inner bark of grape-vine added; the whole molded into shape by turning 



