EASTERN WARBLING VIREO 363 



High up in the trees, one of its nearest neighbors is the wood pewee, 

 another leafy-green little bird. But unlike the pewee that sits 

 motionless on its perch, flying out from it now and then into the air 

 to catch its prey, the vireo rambles about among the leafy branchlets, 

 finding its food there. 



Spring. — Wlien the warbling vireos arrive in New England early 

 in May, we of their human friends hope that a pair will settle in the 

 roadside trees near our homes, for if they do, although we may rarely 

 see them, we know that the male will entertain us with his delightful 

 song, filling the days with charming, simple melody all through the 

 summer, even on the hottest days of July and August. 



The song, as it goes on hour after hour, suggests a spirit of quiet 

 happiness, a contrast to the flaunting, martial bugling of the Balti- 

 more oriole, another of the vireos' neighbors, and to the slow, sweet 

 notes of the wood pewee with their hint of pathos. In the vireo's 

 song there is an air of unhurried calm, a leisureliness we seldom hear 

 in the voice of a bird. Spring brings us greater artists, more pro- 

 ficient technicians, birds of more exuberant joyousness, but no such 

 comfortable and welcome "guest of summer" as the warbling vireo. 



Courtship. — ^We know little in detail of the nesting activities of the 

 warbling vireo, for the bird stays so high above the ground at this 

 season that we rarely see him at short range. Audubon (1842), how- 

 ever, by a fortunate chance, was able to watch the building of a nest 

 under favorable circumstances, and noted a bit of courtship behavior 

 of which he remarks: "During the love days of the pair mentioned 

 above [see below under nesting] , the male would spread its little wings 

 and tail, and strut in short circles round the female, pouring out a low 

 warble so sweet and mellow that I can compare it only to the sounds 

 of a good musical box. The female received these attentions without 

 coyness, and I have often thought that these birds had been attached 

 to each other before that season." Audubon also mentions the odd, 

 swaying motion which is characteristic of the red-eyed vireo (q. v.) 

 both in the season of courtship and after the young are fledged. He 

 says: "I observed that they now and then stood in a stiffened attitude, 

 balancing their body from side to side on the joint of the tarsus and 

 toes, as on a hinge, but could not discover the import of this singu- 

 lar action." 



Nesting. — Dr. Thomas M. Brewer (Baird, Brewer, and Eidgway, 

 1874) , speaking of the nests, says : 



The Warbling Vireo biiikls its nest usually in more elevated positions than 

 any others of this family. For the most part in the vicinity of dwellings, often 

 over frequented streets, they suspend their elaborately woven and beautiful 

 little basket-like nest, secure from intrusion from their human neighbors, and 

 protected by the near presence of man from all their more dreaded 

 enemies. * * * 



