BelVs Vireo. 135 



beyond. The plum thicket has now almost entirely dis- 

 appeared, and on either side of the rivulet are cultivated 

 fields, but fringing the rivulet and the hedge separating 

 the fields are small bushes of hazel, plum, sumach, alder 

 and wild grapevines. It was among these bushes that I 

 first found Bell's vireo, and there I learned something of 

 its habits. Forty rods farther north along the same hedge 

 and rivulet is the remnant of the plum grove, intergrown 

 with bushes and vines, forming another tangle where this 

 vireo sings and breeds unmolested. There, however, it 

 has companions, which sport among the branches in care- 

 less spirit, for Traill's flycatcher is so similar in disposi- 

 tion and habits that there it also finds a congenial home. 

 In the tops of the slender plum trees the green heron 

 spreads its loose mat, while in the forks of the pliant plum- 

 shoots the yellow warbler weaves its downy cup. Across 

 the creek into which the rivulet flows, and extending forty 

 rods beyond, is a narrow, abandoned road between two 

 hedges, now tangled almost impassably with bushes, 

 creeping vines, and weeds, amid which hang the habita- 

 tions of Bell's and the white-eyed vireo. There also the 

 splendid cardinal whistles his rich notes while his less 

 splendidly attired spouse sits upon her bark-woven home 

 among the grapevines, and the catbird flits through the 

 covert and provokes the anger of the pugnacious vireos. 



Bell's vireo, however, though overcoming none of its 

 natural shyness, often takes up its residence in more 

 public and more open situations. Wild blackberry, hazel, 

 and other bushes overhanging ditches along roadsides, 

 and the spreading, drooping lower branches of hedges are 

 favorite resorts, whence its characteristic song greets the 

 passers-by, who are too commonly deaf and blind to the 

 sights and sounds ever inviting their attention. One 

 June morning I found a nest of this vireo in a small clump 

 of wild blackberry bushes overhanging a dry ditch along 

 the road followed by the village boys on their fishing 

 trips. It was the least concealed of all the nests of this 

 species I ever found, and soon was overtaken by self- 

 invited disaster, though I suspect that the blue jays were 

 the guilty parties. 



This vireo loiters on its northward journey more than 



