396 The Red-eye Vireo 



the fluffy female, the feathers of the male were drawn closely about him, 

 so that he looked slim and sleek. The neck seemed constricted, giving him 

 a strangled appearance." 



Few birds are as tame when on the nest as is the Vireo. Only this 

 Spring I pulled down a twig where a bird was brooding her eggs and 

 actually touched the bird on her breast with my finger before she would 

 leave, and when I went away she immediately returned to her vigil. Dr. 

 Anne E. Perkins, of Gowanda, N. Y., has written a story about the female 

 Vireo that was so unusually tame, she tried the experiment of feeding it. 

 In her account she says : 



"I hastily caught a small, succulent green grasshopper and slowly, 

 cautiously, advanced my hand till the grasshopper was within easy reach 

 of the bird. The male kept up a constant scolding in the top of the apple 

 tree containing the nest, while I stood trying to win his wife's confidence. 

 It seemed many weary minutes that she sat motionless or with a slight 

 suspicion of fear in her little red eye, cowering 

 e . in closer to the eggs. Then, just as my hand ached 



intolerably and I was about Jto withdraw it, she made 

 a slow movement of the head towards me and hastily snatched the 

 grasshopper. I was delighted and praised her audibly for her discrimina- 

 tion and confidence. She devoured several more grasshoppers very read- 

 ily, once the ice was broken. The male bird all the time seemed anxious 

 and kept up a continual scolding. I made visits once or twice daily there- 

 after, and she was perfectly fearless about taking food, eagerly accepting 

 small flies and grasshoppers, invariably refusing worms, and showing 

 preference for grasshoppers. 



"She would allow me to stroke her, close my hand about her, almost 

 lift her from the eggs, reach under her, etc. Once or twice she left the 

 nest and flew at her mate when he was making demonstrations of fear 

 and distress, knocked him smartly off his perch, snapping her bill and 

 scolding vigorously, then took her place again on the eggs. It was exactly 

 as if she told him that she would not be interfered with and that he could 

 attend to his own affairs." 



This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents, by the National Association OI 

 Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 



