THE PERCHING BiIrDs. iii 
are characteristic of the creature that utters them. 
It has all the vireonine energy and a dash of origi- 
nality that make it a delightful companion. It has 
often been my fate to linger long in solitary places 
performing many a piece of distasteful drudgery, but 
I invariably took heart when I heard the white-eye, 
and held it a piece of good fortune, after all, that my 
daily toil took me to the haunts of so inspiriting a 
bird. Writes Wilson,— 
“This bird builds a very neat little nest, often in the figure of an 
inverted cone; it is suspended by the upper edge of the two sides, 
on the circular bend of a prickly vine, a species of smilax that gen- 
erally grows in low thickets. Outwardly it is constructed of various 
light materials, bits of rotten wood, fibres of dry stalks, of weeds, 
pieces of paper, commonly newspapers, an article almost always 
found about its nest, so that some of my friends have given it the 
name of the Polidictan ; all these substances are interwoven with the 
silk of caterpillars, and the inside is lined with fine dry grass and 
hair. The female lays five eggs, pure white, marked near the great 
end with a very few small dots of deep black or purple. They gen- 
erally raise two broods in a season. ‘They seem particularly attached 
to thickets of this species of smilax, and make a great ado when any 
one comes near their nest; approaching within a few feet, looking 
down, and scolding with great vehemence. In Pennsylvania they 
are a numerous species.” 
Add to this the following by Dr. Coues, and you 
have a very complete story: 
«The White-eyed Vireo has always been notable, even in groups 
of birds whose spirit is high, for its irritable temperament; and, dur- 
ing the breeding season, nothing can surpass the petulance and irasci- 
bility which it displays when its home is too nearly approached, and 
the fuss it makes when its temper is ruffled in this way. It skips 
about in a panicky state, as regardless of exposure as a virago ha- 
ranguing the crowd on a street corner, seemingly at such loss for 
adequate expletives that we may fancy it quite ready to say, ‘ Thank 
you,’ 1f somebody would only swear a little.’ 
