Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 



Wilson thus describes the jealously guarded nest: "This 

 bird builds a very neat little nest, often in the figure of an inverted 

 cone; it is suspended by the upper end of the two sides, on the 

 circular bend of a prickly vine, a species of smilax, that generally 

 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 politician); all these materials are interwoven 

 with the silk of the caterpillars, and the inside is lined with fine, 

 dry grass and hair." 



Warbling Vireo 

 (Vireo gilvus) Vireo or Greenlet family 



Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English spar- 

 row. 



Male and Female — Ashy olive-green above, with head and neck 

 ash-colored. Dusky line over the eye. Underneath whitish, 

 faintly washed with dull yellow, deepest on sides ; no bars 

 on wings. 



Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. 



Migrations — May. Late September or early October. Summer 

 resident. 



This musical little bird shows a curious preference for rows 

 of trees in the village street or bv the roadside, where he can be 

 sure of an audience to listen to his rich, continuous warble. 

 There is a mellowness about his voice, which rises loud, but not 

 altogether cheerfully, above the bird chorus, as if he were a gifted 

 but slightly disgruntled contralto. Too inconspicuously dressed, 

 and usually too high in the tree-top to be identified without opera- 

 glasses, we may easily mistake him by his voice for one of the 

 warbler family, which is very closely allied to the vireos. Indeed, 

 this warbling vireo seems to be the connecting link between 

 them. 



Morning and afternoon, but almost never in the evening, we 

 may hear him rippling out song after song as he feeds on insects 

 and berries about the garden. But this familiarity lasts only until 

 nesting time, for off he goes with his little mate to some unfre- 



"79 



