Brewster on the Pliiladdjpliia Vireo. 5 



in that near-sighted way peculiar to the tribe. Occasionally its 

 search among the unfolding leaves is rewai'ded by the discovery of 

 some luckless measuring-worm, which is swallowed with the same 

 indifference that marks all the bird's movements. You begin to 

 feel that nothing can disturb the equanimity of the little philoso- 

 pher, when it suddenly launches out into the sunshine, and, with an 

 adroit turn, captures a flying insect invisible to human eyes. The 

 next moment there is a dim impression of glancing wings among 

 the trees, and it has vanished. There is little chance of finding it 

 again, for its voice has as yet no place in the chorus that rises from 

 the budding thickets around. 



But after the ti'ees become dense with foliage, and the sense of 

 early summer steals over the land, even the shy reserve of our 

 recluse yields to the subtile influence, and he finds a tongue no less 

 joyous than the rest. Indeed, after the breeding season has fairly 

 begun, he is quite as indefatigable a singer as his Red-eyed cousin. 

 I have heard his cheerful voice all day long when a gloomy storm 

 brooded over the dripping woods, and during the hottest June 

 days he is rarely silent for any length of time, even at noontide. 

 Nor does cold, blustering weather seem to affect his spirits. I re- 

 member shooting one in a tall yellow birch when a high north wind 

 was bending the stoutest trees like so many saplings. The branch 

 to which the little singer clung was lashed about by the blasts, 

 which flouted the leaves and swung the whole tree-top through the 

 air ; yet he hardly paused a moment in his strain, though his voice 

 was at times nearly drowned by the rushing wind. 



Contrary to what might be expected from the apparently close 

 relationship of the two birds, the song of this species does not in 

 the least resemble that of Vireo gilvus. It is, on the other hand, so 

 nearly identical with that of V. olivaceux that the most critical 

 ear will, in many cases, find great difficulty in distinguishing be- 

 tween the two. The notes of philadelphiciis are generally pitched 

 a little higher in the scale, while many of the utterances are feebler, 

 and the whole strain is a trifle more disconnected. But these dif- 

 ferences ai'e of a very subtile character, and, like most comparative 

 ones, they are not to be depended upon vinless the two species can 

 be heard together. The Philadelphia Vireo has, however, one note 

 which seems to be peculiarly its own, a very abrupt, double-sylla- 

 bled utterance, with a rising inflection, which comes in with the 

 general song at irregular but not infrequent intervals. I have also, 



