NATURE STUDY. 



PUBI^ISHKD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 



Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 



Vol. III. December, 1902. No. 7. 



Only a Red Eye. 



BY EDWARD H. FOGG. 



How many times when out with a party for a bird walk, 

 some one will say " Hush, I hear a bird note !" We all 

 come to a halt and listen. Then another member of the 

 party adds ' ' only a red eye." To be sure it zs a Red Eyed 

 Vireo, but why the on/jy. L,et us stop a few minutes and 

 listen to his song, that has been so variously commented 

 upon by poet and naturalist. With a clear sweet, intona- 

 tion he says, "You know it. We see it. Verily, cheerily, 

 cheery are we," meantime hopping about from twig to 

 branch in quest of food, stopping in his song scarcely long 

 enough to swallow the morsels which he finds, usuallj- 

 in a very contented manner, and as one naturalist has said 

 "he seems to give thanks for every bite." As opposed to 

 this, another writer calls his song the "tiresome platitude" 

 of the red eye, anothei complains of the monotony of his 

 song, another in comparing his with another Vireo's, says 

 what a contrast between this and the red eye's compara- 

 tively meaningless and feelingless music. 



It seems as if much depended on the listener, the song 

 must respond to something in us, our mood as it were — 



