ii8 Bird-Land Echoes. 



all summer long the red-eyed and yellow-throated 

 vireos have a happy time. They sing somewhat 

 alike and yet differently, the advantage being with 

 the yellow-throat These birds undertook to relieve 

 the sickly linden of its insect pests, but the task was 

 more than they could accomplish. There was no 

 quarrelling, and I often thought that they stopped a 

 moment, in passing, to say a word or two. It looked 

 so, at any rate. Then they would separate, the red- 

 eye flying to some new twig, and saying, according 

 to Flagg, ''Do you hear me f Do you believe it?'' 

 And the yellow-throat — away up in the tree-top by 

 this time — would call back, '' Doubt it? 'deed I do/ '' 

 And so the pointless discussion continued from some 

 time in May until the cool days of September. I 

 was in hopes that the tree would recover after such 

 constant attention, but the twigs that drop with every 

 winter wind leave me in doubt as well as the vireos, 

 if that was the subject of their conversations. 



What pretty nests they build ! I have one that 

 has been strengthened by passing a thread to a twig 

 above those to which the rim of the nest is attached, 

 thus affording additional security. The weaving in 

 of this long thread and its overlapping and twisting 

 are positively mai'vellous. 



But the typical flycatchers — birds as much or even 

 more in the air than any insect — are the swallows. 

 In some respects they are the best expressions of 

 nature's idea of a bird, and probably more nearly 

 reach the theoretical point of perfection than any 

 other living creature. Mechanically considered, they 



