RED-EYED VIREO 341 



streets of the built-up sections of the country. It sometimes spends 

 the summer months even in the parks of our hxrge cities with blocks 

 of houses on all sides, such as, rarely, the Public Gardens in Boston, 

 Mass. ; but in the main the red-eyed vireo is a woodland bird. 



Perley M. Silloway (1923) describes thus the vireo's habitat in the 

 western Adirondack forest : "The Red-eyed Vireo abounds in almost 

 all aspects of the forest except dense bog woods. It lives in clearings 

 where small trees have obtained a standing, in the borders of the Burn, 

 and in open woodlands of every kind. It is one of the birds whose 

 preferences for timber lead them into the virgin forest, but there they 

 require a 'margin' of some sort, usually a brook or a bog, which breaks 

 the forest canopy in some degree. Though it nests most commonly 

 in sapling growth it hunts and sings in the trees, preferably such as 

 form spreading tops at medium height, but it has little to do with 

 evergreens." 



A. A. Saunders (1942), writing of the bird in the woodlands of 

 New York State, reports that it is "common in Oak-Hickory, Maple- 

 Beech, Cherry- Aspen, and river valley forests. In the higher Maple- 

 Beech, where hemlock is missing and few birds occur, it is still a 

 common bird. It is also common in mature forests." Saunders also 

 states (1938) : 



Red-eyed vireos live so much of the time in the trees, hidden among thick 

 foliage, that they are not frequently observed. If it were not tor the song, their 

 presence, in spite of their numbers, would be difficult to detect. * * * I have 

 distingiiished individuals mainly by the location of their singing trees. This is 

 fairly definite, a particular bird being found in the same tree day after day. 

 Occasionally it leaves the tree and sings elsewhere, but it does not wander from 

 place to place as the blue-head does. 



This would seem to be evidence that the red-eyed vireo has definite territory, 

 but I have never observed fighting or jealousy over such territory. 



Francis Zirrer, of Hayward, Wis., writes to Mr. Bent of a case of 

 belligerency in the redeye. He says: "During the nesting season 

 some are quite pugnacious. They will attack almost any bird that 

 ventures too close to a nesting tree. The little bird will drop like a 

 stone almost at the head of the culprit. During the nesting season of 

 the pileated woodpecker, when the big birds flow low and silently, 

 like phantoms between the tree trunks and decaying stumps, I have 

 seen this vireo strike the big bird with such force that it nearly lost 

 its balance, looked and acted surprised — and flew away." 



The red-eyed vireo is not commonly so tame while on the nest as the 

 solitary, but Ernest Harold Baynes (1922) tells the following astonish- 

 ing story of his "friendship" with a female redeye : 



I knew that vireos have a reputation of being willing to meet one half way in 

 the matter of making friends, so I decided to make an advance. First I went to 

 a dry and sandy spot where I turned over large stones until I found some ants' 



