THE RED-EYED VIREO. 359 



of Cambridge, Mass., at the Little Dalles, in this State". Air. Lyman Belding, 

 the veteran ornithologist, of Stockton, Cal., advises me, ho\ve\er, that this 

 Vireo was first seen by his friend, Dr. J. W. Williams, of Walla Walla, on 

 June 4 and 24, 1885, and that six specimens were taken. Dr. Merrill, writing 

 in 1897'', records them as abundant summer visitors at Fort Sherman, Idaho; 

 and Fannin notes their occurrence upon Vancouver Island. Messrs. C. W. and 

 J. H. Bowles met with this species in the Puyallup Valley on June 23, 1899, 

 when they saw and heard at least half a dozen. Mr. Bowles and 1 were con- 

 stantlv on the lookout for this bird during our East-side trip in May and June, 

 1906, but we failed to obser\e it in either Spokane or Stevens Counties. W'e 

 found it first in a wooded spur of the Grand Coulee on June 13th; then com- 

 monly at Chelan, where it nested: and also at the head of Lake Chelan with 

 Cassin Vireos right alongside. And now cumcs the announcement of its 

 breeding at Kirkland where Miss Jennie \'. tU-lly lnnk two sets in the season 

 of 1908. 



The truth is, the Cassin \'ireo has so long occupied the center of the 

 stage here in the Northwest, that we may never know whether his cousin. Red- 

 eye, stole a march on us from over the Rockies, or was here for a century 

 grieving at our dullness of perception. In habit the two species are not unlike, 

 and their ordinary notes do not advertise differences, even to the mildly ob- 

 servant. Those of the Red-eye are, however, higher in pitch, less mellow and 

 soft in quality, and are rendered with more sprightliness of manner. Its solil- 

 oquizing notes are often uttered — always in single phrases of from two to four 

 svllal)les each — while the bird is busily hunting, and serve to mark an overflow 

 of good spirits rather than a studied attempt at song. His best efforts are 

 given to the entertaining of his gentle spouse when she is brooding ujjdu the 

 nest. A bird to which I once listened at midday, in Ohio, had chosen for Ins 

 station the topmost bare twig of a beech tree a hundred feet from the ground, 

 and from this elevated position he poured out his soul at the rate of some fifty 

 phrases per minute, and without intermission during the half hour he was 

 imder observation. 



So thoroly possessed does our little hero become with the spirit of poesy, 

 that when he takes a turn upon the nest he indulges, all unmindful of the dan- 

 ger, in frequent outbursts of song. Both birds are closely attached to the home, 

 about which center their fears and their hopes; and well they may be, for it is 

 a beautiful structure in itself. The nest is a semipensile cj.ip, bound firmly by 

 its edges to a small fork near the end of some horizontal branch of tree or bush, 

 and usually at a height not exceeding five or ten feet. It is composed largely of 

 fibers from weed-stalks, and fine strips of cedar or clematis bark, which also 

 forms what little lining there is. .A ciumous characteristic of the entire \'ireo 



.\uk. Vol. IX., Oct., 1892, p. 396. 

 .\uk. \ol. XV., Jan.. 1898, p. 18. 



