EASTERN WARBLING VIREO 365 



the eggs would not have been safe for half a second if left uncovered. 

 However, I found later that, even when there was no wind, the birds 

 changed places rather quickly." 



Audubon (1842) gives an account of the building of a nest in a 

 Lombardy poplar which almost touched his window. He says : 



Never before had I seen it placed so low, and never before had I an oppor- 

 tunity of examining it, or of observing the particular habits of the species with 

 so much advantage. The nest, although formed nearly in the same manner as 

 several others, which I have since obtained by cutting them down with rifle 

 balls, from the top twigs of the tall trees to which they were attached, instead 

 of being fastened in the fork of a twig, was fixed to the body of the tree, and 

 that of a branch coming off at a very acute angle. The birds were engaged in 

 constructing it during eight days, working chiefly in the morning and evening. 

 * * * One morning I observed both of them at work ; they had already attached 

 some slender blades of grass to the knots on the branch and the bark of the trunk, 

 and had given them a circular disposition. They continued working downwards 

 and outwards, until the structure exhibited the form of their delicate tenement. 

 Before the end of the second day, bits of hornets' nests and particles of corn- 

 husks had been attached to it by pushing them between the rows of grass, and 

 fixing them with silky substances. On the third day, the birds were absent, ner 

 could I hear them anywhere in the neighborhood, and thinking that a cat miglit 

 have caught them from the edge of the roof, I despaired of seeing them again. 

 On the fourth morning, however, their notes attracted my attention before I 

 rose, and I had the pleasure of finding them at their labours. The materials which 

 they now used consisted chiefly of extremely slender grasses, which the birds 

 worked in a circular form within the frame which they had previously made. 

 The little creatures were absent nearly an hour at a time, and returned together 

 bringing the grass, which I concluded they found at a considerable distance. 

 Going into the street to see in what direction they went, I watched them for 

 some time, and followed them as they flew from tree to tree toward the river. 

 There they stopped, and looked as if carefully watching me, on which I i-etired 

 to a small distance, when they resumed their journey, and led me quite out of 

 the village, to a large meadow, where stood an old hay-stack. They alighted 

 on it, and in a few minutes each had selected a blade of grass. Keturning by 

 the same route, they moved so slowly from one tree to another, that my patience 

 was severely tried. Two other days were consumed in travelling for the same 

 kind of grass. On the seventh I saw only the female at work, using wool and 

 horse-hair. The eighth was almost entirely spent by both in smoothing the in- 

 side. They would enter the nest, sit in it, turn round, and press the lining, I 

 should suppose a hundred times or more in the course of an hour. * * * 



In the course of five days, an equal number of eggs was laid. 



Eggs. — [Author's note: The warbling vireo lays three to five 

 eggs to a set, usually four. These are practically ovate and without 

 any appreciable gloss. They are pure white, with only a few scat- 

 tered spots of various shades of reddish or darker browns, or blackish, 

 the darker spots being commonest. The measurements of 50 eggs 

 average 19.1 by 14.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 20.3 by 14.7, 18.7 by 15.1, 17.8 by 13.6, 18.8 by 13.2 millimeters.] 



Young. — We meet the young warbling vireos at close range when 

 they come down from their lofty nest and follow their parents about 



