286 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



NEST AND EGGS OF WHITE-EYED VIREO 



Fig. 5. In our bird fauna we have some 25 different forms of 

 Vireos, and they all construct very dainty, not to say curious 

 nests. The rim is attached to the forked twig selected by the 

 bird, and thus it is suspended like a little open purse. 



contained but two young, and I succeeded in getting a 

 very good picture of it, which is reproduced in Figure 7. 

 The two nestlings were just about to quit their home, and 

 would, in a little while, be entirely able to take care of 

 themselves. Alexander Wilson, in his American Ornith- 

 ology, gave us altogether the best description of the notes 

 of the Yellow-breasted Chat that has ever been commit- 

 ted to paper ; I feel sure the reader will be glad to peruse 

 the paragraph he left us, especially as the work of that 

 famous writer and lover of birds is rarely in the hands of 

 the average student of ornithology of today. So Wilson 

 puts it this way when writing about this Yellow-breasted 

 Chat of ours, and his description almost makes us hear 

 and sec the bird : "When he has once taken up his resi- 

 dence in a favorite situation, which is almost always in 

 close thickets of hazel, brambles, vines and thick under- 

 wood, he becomes very jealous of his possessions, and 

 seems offended at the least intrusion, scolding every pas- 

 .senger as soon as they come within view, in a great va- 

 riety of odd and uncouth monosyllables, which it is diffi- 

 cult to describe, but which may be readily imitated, so as 

 to deceive the bird himself, and draw him after you for 

 half a quarter of a mile at a time, as I have sometimes 

 amused myself in doing, and frequently without once 

 seeing him. (>n these occasions, his responses are con- 

 stant and rapid, strongly expressive of anger and anxiety, 

 and while the bird itself remains unseen, the voice shifts 

 from place to place, among the bushes, as if it proceeded 

 from a sjjirit. First is heard a repetition of short notes, 

 the whistling of the wings of a Duck or Teal, beginning 



loud and rapid, and falling lower and slower, till they 

 end in detached notes; then a succession of others, some- 

 thing like the barking of young puppies, is followed by a 

 variety of hollow, guttural sounds, each eight or ten 

 times repeated, more like those proceeding from the 

 throat of a quadruped than that of a bird ; which are suc- 

 ceeded by others not unlike the mewing of a cat, but 

 considerably hoarser. All these are uttered with great 

 vehemence, in such different keys, and with such pecu- 

 liar modulations of voice, as sometimes to seem at a con- 

 siderable distance, and instantly as if just beside you ; 

 now on this hand, now on that ; so that, from these ma- 

 noeuvres of ventriloquism, you are utterly at a loss to as- 

 certain from what particular spot or quarter they proceed. 

 If the weather be mild and serene, with clear moonlight, 

 he continues gabbling in the same strange dialect, with 

 very little intermission, during the whole night, as if dis- 

 puting with his own echoes; but probably with a design 

 of inciting the passing females to his retreat; for, when 

 the season is further advanced, they are seldom heard 

 during the night." Further on Wilson says that "while 

 the female of the Chat is sitting, the cries of the male are 



NEST OF THE SONG SPARROW 



Fig. 6. Most of our sparrows build a nest more or less like the 

 one here shown ; often the clutch of four eggs is heavily speckled, 

 usually with some shade of brown. 



