Bed- Eyed Vireo. 241 



of the foliage, snapping down insects taken from the 

 leaves and often on the wing, have caused them to be 

 styled the "red-eyed flycatchers." They also resemble 

 the warblers in their flitting movements, and are fre- 

 quently mistaken for warblers in the dark foliage of the 

 tree tops. They travel with the hordes of warblers seeking 

 summer homes far beyond the northern limits of our State, 

 and for a bright golden day of the brief season of migra- 

 tion these late species will cause the vernal woods to seem 

 animate with these gay, flitting creatures. The warblers 

 hurry on to their destinations, but the vireos remain, and 

 soon their welcome songs express their pleasure in again 

 establishing themselves in their summer home of love and 

 melody. 



The nidification of the red-eyed vireo begins about the 

 middle of May, and the eggs are deposited in the last 

 week of May, or the early part of June. The site of the 

 nest is a horizontal fork among the twigs of the trees 

 which these vireos frequent. Like the homes of the other 

 vireos, the nest is suspended by its brim, thus forming a 

 pensile but not loosely swinging cup. It is generally from 

 one to four feet from the extremity of the branch that 

 supports it. It is made of fine fibers of weed bark, grasses, 

 strings, downy feathers, and gossamer, lined with fine 

 grass. The cavity is rarely less than an inch and three- 

 fourths across the top, and about one inch and a half deep. 

 The eggs vary from three to five, though sets of three and 

 four are the most common. They have a pure white 

 ground, and are sparsely marked with spots of blackish - 

 brown, chiefly toward the larger end. They average 

 about .85 by .56 of an inch. The nest is situated from 

 five to thirty feet from the ground, averaging higher in 

 my experience than the nests of the warbling vireo, for 

 more nests of the latter are found in lower situations. 



The nests of the red-eyed vireo that I have examined 

 are smaller in diameter than those of the warbling vireo, 

 and the cavities average a trifle deeper, the homes of the 

 warbling vireo appearing larger and shallower. In the 

 construction of the nest the female red-eyed vireo does 

 most of the work, if not all of it, and she certainly under- 

 stands the difficult process of interweaving the sundry 

 16 



