70 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



and fronts of the houses may reflect heat as from a 

 furnace-mouth, the bird will hunt for every lurking fly 

 among the leaves, and sing his strange, half- melan- 

 choly song, a part of which is lamely represented by 

 tsheevoo tshuvee peeait peroi ; this from Nuttall. 



The cow-bird carefully attends the red-eyes, and 

 deposits an egg in the nest; and the one ornitho- 

 logical wonder is that the bird is fool enough to take 

 care of it. This it does almost always, although 

 evidence of rebellion is not wanting. How the 

 habit ever came about is a mystery, and why the 

 red-eyes should be so patient about it is more of a 

 one. When they have young birds they are careful 

 to look after them and defend them when danger 

 threatens. Perhaps the recent influx of red-eyes to 

 our towns is to escape the cow-birds, for the latter 

 do not appear to follow. 



Very different is the White-eyed Vireo. The name 

 indicates one of these differences, and this bird has 

 two white bands across the wing, which are wanting 

 in the preceding species. It is a bird, too, of the 

 shrubbery, of tangled nooks in the country; a bird 

 we must look for, not a town- dweller that invites us 

 to inspect it. It comes in spring, about the same 

 time, and makes the neighborhood lively at once. 

 Probably there is no more energetic singer. There 

 is not a muscle of its body not in motion, nor a 

 feather that is not a-tremble when it fairly shouts, 

 " Take it up easy, easy" let us hope referring to life's 

 burden that it prophetically sees before it. Of course 

 this is not its only song, but one of many that have 

 a general resemblance to each other ; in other words, 



