368 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



(1895), speaking of the 1870's, also mentions the birds' occurrence 

 "among the ehns of Boston Common." 



Many observers have noted the warbling vireo's habit of singing 

 while he is incubating. William Brewster (1937) speaks of it thus: 

 "Soon after leaving the Yellow-throat's nest, I heard our Warbling 

 Vireo singing in the orchard. Thinking that he might be on the nest, 

 I followed up the sound and directly saw the nest in the very top of 

 a rather tall tree attached to the horizontal twigs of a long, wpright 

 leafy branch. I could see the bird's head distinctly. He raised it high 

 when he sang and his white throat swelled and flashed in the sunlight." 



Francis H. Allen (MS.) describes an unusual observation: "I once 

 saw a pair perched in bushes and low trees on a river bank and flying 

 frequently down to the surface of the stream, striking it forcibly, and 

 then returning to their perches, where they preened their feathers. 

 Both birds participated, but not simultaneously. Wliether the purpose 

 was for bathing or to take insects from the surface of the water I 

 could not make out, but, intentionally or not, they got their baths. In 

 all cases it was a straight dash to the water at an angle of perhaps 25 

 or 30 degrees." 



Voice. — Wherever we turn in the literature of the warbling vireo we 

 find that the author, after commenting on the bird's inconspicuous- 

 ness, speaks enthusiastically of its song, pointing out the difference 

 from the songs of the other vireos, the length of the song period, and 

 the charm of the smoothly flowing warble. 



The song of the warbling vireo is not broken up into short, exclama- 

 tory phrases like those of the other common New England vireos, the 

 red-eyed, the solitary, and the yellow-throated, but continues on in a 

 long series of slow, quietly delivered musical notes increasing in 

 force to the end. The pitch undulates gently to the final note, which 

 is generally the highest and \X\^ most strongly accented. Some 

 writers find a resemblance in the song to that of the purple finch, 

 but the finch's notes are very rapid and energetic and have none of the 

 calm deliberateness of the vireo's melody. The most suggestive 

 rendering of the vireo's song, perhaps, is Wilson Flagg's (1890) : 

 "Brig-a-dier, Brig-a-dier, Brigate," which, pronounced slowly, brings 

 out the rhythm admirably. 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) sends to Mr. Bent this summary of 

 the song: "The song of the warbling vireo consists of a series of 

 connected notes, with no two consecutive notes on the same pitch, 

 and is therefore a true warble. Individuals often sing several differ- 

 ent songs, and in a number of cases I have recorded from three to 

 seven different songs from one individual. The pitch varies from 

 D ' ' ' ' to C # ' ' ', half a tone more than an octave. The average song 

 ranges about 314 tones in pitch. Songs consist of 7 to 25 notes each 

 and vary in length from 1 to 3 seconds. The notes are not all the 



