210 APPENDIX. 
TANAGERS. 
Shy, brilliantly-colored birds, with dull-plumaged wives. 
They build low, but hunt for worms and sing their loud 
swinging song mostly in the cover of tree tops. 
SWALLOWS. 
Small-billed, big-mouthed insect eaters. Not songless, 
yet without musical power. When not flying they often 
perch on telegraph wires and the ridge-poles of barns. 
WAXWINGS. 
Elegant, delicately-tinted birds. Usually silent and re- 
tiring. They practise among themselves amazing courtesy 
and gentleness. 
VIREOS. 
Small olive-green or gray-backed, white-breasted birds ; 
much the color of the lights and leaf tints they live among. 
Bills, long and slender for holding worms. Songs, loud and 
continuous, from their tree-top covers. Nests pensile and 
delicate. 
WARBLERS. 
Plumage, mostly variegated and brilliant. Females gen- 
erally duller than males. Song, in many cases only a trill. 
Food, insects. Habits, nervous, restless. 
WRENS AND THRASHERS. 
Small and large birds that sing their brilliant songs se- 
cure in the protection of their inconspicuous brown or gray 
dress and the dense thickets or forest undergrowth they 
frequent. As they spend little time in flight their wings 
are short, but the long tails of the thrashers are of great use 
in helping them along from bush to bush. 
CREEPERS. 
Small obscure brown birds that spend their time creep- 
