268 Bird - Lore 



of the United States. A little time passes, and then one spring morning we 

 again hear their cries in the grove about the house. Wilson Flagg once said 

 that the words which the Red-eyed Vireo sings are clearly these: "You see it — 

 you know it — do you hear me? Do you believe it?" Never do I pause to listen 

 to one of these birds without recalling these words, for the music comes in a 

 series of groups of short, clear, questioning calls, and Mr. Flagg's interpreta- 

 tion is perhaps as accurate as any that has been suggested. 



How little we know of the courtship of birds ! Dr. W. M. Tyler, of Lexington, 

 Mass., writing in Bird-Lore some time ago, related this remarkable experience: 



"This afternoon, about 6 o'clock, I saw a pair of Red-eyed Vireos acting in 

 a manner new to me. They were in a small gray birch tree, 12 feet from the 

 ground, and almost over my head. The two birds were very near each other; 

 so near that their bills might have touched, although they did not. The male, 

 or at least the bird who played the active role, faced the side of the other bird, 

 so that their bodies were at right angles. The bird, who, from her passive 

 actions, I assumed, but perhaps wrongly, to be the female, sat crouched low 

 on her perch, with the feathers slightly puffed out. But, although in the attitude 

 of a sick bird, she appeared in good health, I thought, and I am certain, that 

 she gave close attention to the strange actions of her companion. The bird I 

 have called the male, and I think it is safe to so consider him, was constantly 

 in motion. He rocked his body, especially his head, from side to side, his bill 

 sweeping over the upper parts of the other bird, never touching her, nor, indeed, 

 coming very near it, for his head was above and a little to one side of her back. 

 In swinging from side to side he moved slowly but with a tenseness suggesting 

 strong emotion. In contrast to the fluffy female, the feathers of the male were 

 drawn closely about him, so that he looked slim and sleek. The neck seemed 

 constricted, giving him a strangled appearance. 



"Neither bird opened its beak, but one of them continually uttered, with 

 no suggestion of Vireo phrasing, some faint notes in a thin, almost squeaky 

 tone, nearly as high-pitched as a Kingbird's voice. I thought, when I first 

 heard the notes and stepped aside to identify the bird, that a Goldfinch was 

 singing very softly under his breath. There were the same little trills, and, in 

 between, the same sustained notes, the whole suggestive of the Goldfinch, but 

 very quietly and gently given. It was as if a Goldfinch who had lost much of 

 his power and all of his energy were whispering his song into the ear of his 

 lady-love 



"Few birds are so tame when on the nest as is the Vireo. Only this spring I 

 pulled down a twig where a bird was brooding her eggs and actually thumped 

 the bird on her breast with my finger before she would leave, and when I went 

 away she immediately returned to her vigil." Dr. Anne E. Perkins, of Gowanda, 

 N. Y., has written a story about a female Vireo that was so unusually tame that 

 she tried the experiment of feeding it. In her account she says: 



"I hastily caught a small, succulent green grasshopper and slowly, cau- 



