BelVs Yireo. 133 



Kind Providence had a different fate in store for her, 

 however, for several days later there came such floods of 

 rain that the swollen waters of the little stream over- 

 flowed its banks, dashing away every loose particle in its 

 path, and on visiting the spot after the subsidence of the 

 water, I found no record of the existence of the once cher- 

 ished home of one of my wildwood favorites. 



BELL'S VIEEO. 



Though not uncommon in this locality of central Il- 

 linois, Bell's vireo appears to be quite unknown except to 

 the enthusiastic observer and the trained ornithologist. 

 Its domicile is seldom harried by wandering small boys, 

 and even the earnest bird-gazer must bend in humility 

 when he seeks to further his acquaintance with this little 

 greenlet by visiting it in its bushy haunts. It is no gad- 

 about or peddler of village gossip, but passes its days con- 

 tentedly warbling literally "under its own vine and (fig) 

 tree." Indeed, it appears to care nothing for the friendly 

 associations with other birds so noticeable in the habits of 

 some species, being a regular hermit in its life among the 

 bushes. I once found a cuckoo nesting in a tangle of 

 grapevines, among whose drooping twigs Bell's vireo had 

 swung its tiny cup; but the unsocial ways of the cuckoo 

 would preclude any degree of familiarity between the 

 strange neighbors. Even when the white-eyed vireo is 

 dwelling in the same tangle with Bell's vireo, there is a 

 mutual indifference to the association, and each places its 

 nest where it may have its limited range without becom- 

 ing familiar with its neighbor. 



Like the other vireos, this little but spirited creature 

 does not present its best manners and warble its sweetest 

 notes among strangers. It sings the most forcibly and 

 gayly near the vines and bushes where hangs its gossamer- 

 thatched home, hence its singing in any particular vicinity 

 is a pretty certain index of its nesting somewhere at hand. 

 So nearly is its entire time spent among the low bushes 

 and tangled growth of thickets and ravines that it is sel- 

 dom seen outside of the covert, and then only momen- 



