280 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



been blown out of the tree. I found it on the ground ; evidently it had 

 not been completed." 



N. S. Goss (1891) found a nest of the yellow-throated vireo, in the 

 timber near Neosho Falls, Kans., "attached to branches of a very 

 small horizontal limb of a large hickory tree, about twenty feet from 

 the ground, and ten feet below the limbs that formed the top of the 

 tree. In the forks of the tree the Cooper's Hawks were nesting, and 

 I discovered the Vireo and its nest in watching the Hawks — or rather 

 the man I had hired to climb the tree to the Hawks' nest." He 

 continues : 



I have since noticed these birds in the woodlands on several occasions, and on 

 the 18th of May, 1883, vphile strolling along the sonth bank of the Kansas 

 River, near Topeka, in the timber skirting the stream, I had the pleasure to 

 find a pair of them building a nest in a honey locust, about sixteen feet from 

 the ground, and eight feet from the body of the tree. The nest v?as fastened 

 to the forks of a small horizontal branch. The frame of the nest appeared 

 to be completed. The birds were busy at work, the female lining the nest with 

 small, hair-like stems, the male covering the outside with soft, lint-like fibrous 

 stripplings from plants (these closely resembling the limb and its surroundings), 

 and dotting it over with lichen. * * * As the female stood upon the top of 

 the nest, with head down and inside, I could not see the manner of arranging the 

 lining; but as she kept walking around upon the i-im, I could, in imagination, 

 see her plaiting and weaving in and out the hair-like stems. It was very easy 

 and interesting, however, to see and note the actions of the male, as he deftly 

 worked the material into the framework, running the longer, fibrous, thread-like 

 strips through, and then quickly springing upon the top, and fastening them on the 

 inside. Then he would rearrange the outside, stopping a moment to inspect the 

 work, and then off in search of more material, occasionally warbling a few notes 

 on the way ; but he was silent at the nest, while I remained so near. 



John Hutchins (1902) gives a full account of the building of their 

 nest by a pair of yellow-throated vireos close to his house in Litchfield, 

 Conn. : 



The discovery of the nest-building was made, as is so often the case, by seeing 

 the bird gathering material. We were passing near the stable, when underneath 

 its rather deep eaves a small bird was seen to be fluttering, and we thought she 

 was caught in a strong spider's web, as before now I have found our Humming- 

 bird ; but instead of this the bird was gathering web for her uses, and soon flew 

 away to the front of the house, whei*e we lost sight of her ; but on coming up 

 cautiously we had the great joy of seeing her fastening the first sticky threads of 

 her new home to some outstretched twigs of a small low-growing elm branch close 

 by our windov^ * * ♦ The birds began their building on Sunday morning, 

 June 2. By the following Saturday, June 8, the nest was completed, so that they 

 took about one round week of not hurried, but of quite incessant work to complete 

 their home-making. * * * 



The material for the nest was almost all of spider-web. * * * And there 

 were occasional thread-like shreds of some coarser fiber in the Yellow-throats' 

 building, but by far the larger part was of the twisted films of the spider. 

 * * * The birds built the rim of their nest stout and strong, twisting the web 

 about the twigs and over and over upon itself where it stretched from twig to 

 twig till I wondered at their ingenuity and patience. Their little beaks reminded 



