208 



Sketches of Some Comynon Birds. 



appearance of the leaves in the spring to the time they 

 show the gorgeous eifects of the first frosts. However, 

 for a time in the heated season in July their songs are 

 heard rarely, or occasionally at most; but after the silence 

 of the moulting period they warble as frequently as in the 

 earlier days, though their notes are now more touching in 

 their somewhat reduced volume and intensity. 



The song of the warbling vireo is longer than that of the 

 red-eyed species, and is more refined and expressive. It 

 is most like the song of the rose- breasted grosbeak, yet it 

 lacks the loud fullness of the beautiful strains characteris- 

 tic of that gifted songster. If the song of the latter were 

 reduced in force, it would be really difficult to distinguish 

 the author hy the music, so similar are the songs in 

 quality, though at times the rose-breasted grosbeak extends 

 his measures beyond the length of the longest strains of 

 the vireo. When you hear a series of loud, emphatic, 

 monitorial notes, uttered in groups of three, four, or five 

 syllables, each group with a rising inflection toward the 

 end, coming from the branches about the middle of the 

 height of the tree in which the performer is seated, j^ou 

 may conclude that a red-eyed vireo is attracting your 

 attention. When you hear a series of eight to twelve 

 notes uttered continuously, with less force, but wonder- 

 fully expressive and touching, issuing from about the same 

 height as the former, and you recognize the author as very 

 similar in appearance to the red-eyed species whose notes 

 and characteristics you have lately fixed in mind, you 

 may begin your study of the warbling vireo with confi- 

 dence and success. 



When the warbling vireo perceives itself to be the sub- 

 ject of over-zealous observation while it is singing, it has 

 a pretty habit of lowering its voice to continue its song, 

 executing it in a softened, subdued manner, thus rendering 

 the performance scarcely audible to the listener, and all 

 the while it proceeds with its occupation of picking insects 

 from the foliage near it, singing with head lowered and 

 apparently interested in nothing else but its examination 

 of the leaves and buds. I have mentioned this habit as 

 also characteristic of the prairie horned lark and the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak. The red-eyed vireo also sings some- 



