338 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Samuel A. Harper (MS.) noticed so much irregularity in the incu- 

 bation of the female in three nests under his observation that none of 

 the eggs hatched. 



Aretas A. Saunders (1938) states that "both sexes share in incuba- 

 tion and feeding young" and Forbush (1929) says: "Occasionally a 

 pair may raise two broods in a season." 



Francis H. Herrick (1904) remarks: "Wlien the young Vireos were 

 a week old I began to watch their nesting habits at night more closely, 

 and found that, while the male apparently roosted near by, the female 

 invariably slept on the nest. At from fifteen to twenty minutes after 

 sundown she was regularly at her post, and even at this hour usually 

 fast asleep. So profound, indeed, were her slumbers, that I could often 

 enclose her in my hand and stroke her feathers without awaking 

 her. She slept with her head twisted back and buried deep in the 

 feathers between the shoulders. An apparently headless trunk or a 

 little ball of feathers was all that could be seen, and the only motion 

 discernible came from the regular pulsations of breathing." William 

 Brewster (193(>) recounts a somewhat similar experience. 



T. C. Stephens (1917), from a close study of a nest, found that 

 "75% of the work of feeding was done by the female, while the male 

 did about 25%." 



Francis H. Herrick (1904) reports that "the eyes began to open on 

 the fourth day, when the first faint cheeps of the young were audible 

 at a distance of a few feet," and, according to Burns (1921) , the young 

 birds leave the next 12 days after hatching. 



Young redeyes are very importunate ; even when they have reached 

 full size they fly to their parents, begging for food, using a rather 

 long, sustained note that sounds like theet and is strangely like the 

 food call of the black-capped chickadee. 



My notes, taken in the Wliite Mountains, N. H., some years ago, 

 state : "I was surprised to find parents still feeding their young. On 

 September 8th, one or two young birds (fully grown, of course) 

 followed an adult about, insisting on being fed. The old bird had a 

 green worm in its bill, and one of the young birds, darting toward 

 it, snatched it away from the parent, who tried to escape it seemed. 

 Apparently the f amilj'^ ties were holding by a thread, and the old bird 

 was doing its best to sever them." 



Forbush (1929) reports a case of a bird feeding young, on Septem- 

 ber 15, barely able to fly. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal 

 down of the red-eyed vireo "pale drab-gray" and describes the juvenal 

 plumage as "above, including lesser wing coverts, drab. Wings and 

 tail olive-brown, edged with bright olive-green, brightest on the sec- 

 ondaries and tertiaries. Below, silky white, faintly tinged on the sides 



