THE PERCHING BIRDS. 71 



are characteristic of the creature that utters them. 

 It has all the vireonine energy and a dash of origi- 

 nality that make it a delightful companion. It has 

 often been my fate to linger long in solitary places 

 performing many a piece of distasteful drudgery, but 

 I invariably took heart when I heard the white-eye, 

 and held it a piece of good fortune, after all, that my 

 daily toil took me to the haunts of so inspiriting a 

 bird. Writes Wilson, 



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

 inverted cone ; it is suspended by the upper edge of the two sides, 

 on the circular bend of a prickly vine, a species of smilax that gen- 

 erally 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 substances are interwoven with the 

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

 hair. The female lays five eggs, pure white, marked near the great 

 end with a very few small dots of deep black or purple. They gen- 

 erally raise two broods in a season. They seem particularly attached 

 to thickets of this species of smilax, and make a great ado when any 

 one comes near their nest ; approaching within a few feet, looking 

 down, and scolding with great vehemence. In Pennsylvania they 

 are a numerous species." 



Add to this the following by Dr. Coues, and you 

 have a very complete story : 



" The White-eyed Vireo has always been notable, even in groups 

 of birds whose spirit is high, for its irritable temperament ; and, dur- 

 ing the breeding season, nothing can surpass the petulance and irasci- 

 bility which it displays when its home is too nearly approached, and 

 the fuss it makes when its temper is ruffled in this way. It skips 

 about in a panicky state, as regardless of exposure as a virago ha- 

 ranguing the crowd on a street corner, seemingly at such loss for 

 adequate expletives that we may fancy it quite ready to say, ' Thank 

 you,' if somebody would only swear a little." 



