52 BIRD-SOXGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



which its elegance and brilliant plumage 

 entitle it. 



The warbling vireo {inreo gikms), the 

 first of his family to arrive from the South, 

 is a singer of good parts, and of all the 

 birds known to me may most emphatically 

 be said to warble. His song much resem- 

 bles that of the purple-finch, but contains 

 none of the trills of the latter, and is not 

 nearly so full and round. Somebody has 

 tried to turn it into English by the words 

 brigadier, brigadier, bridgei, which, perhaps, 

 express very well the accentuation, the 

 number of s)'llables, and the pauses. Per- 

 haps the most interesting thing about this 

 bird is that it is much more abundant in 

 the city than in more retired localities, seem- 

 ing to prefer the elms and maples that line 

 our city streets. How few passers-by feel 

 grateful to this little vireo for the delicious 

 music which he lavishes on them from 

 above. In Elm Park the song of these 

 birds can scarcely be missed. The vireos 

 (Latin viridis), or greenlets, all have green- 

 ish-brown backs, with white beneath, and 



