RED-EYED VIREO, 



broken, interrupted song, and one may always depend 

 upon this fragmentary character for its unmistakable 

 identification. The dots show the disconnected charac- 

 ter of the song perfectly : 



The musical notation in general appearance does not look 

 unlike that of the Robin: 



tfllegrp dgitd to. 



T^ ^// twi ce~ 6 \><i . ^ 



m 



sempre staccato. 



Or the folio winy: 



Jlllegro dgifdto. ^T^ Twice Sva. 



But there are really great differences, and appearances 

 at best are superficial; the Red-eyed Vireo's voice is 

 pitched on a higher key, the notes are more rapid al- 

 though the pauses are much longer, and the whistle is 

 an apparently clear one by no means running along in 

 unaltering three-note groups. Henry Ward Beecher, 

 crediting the Vireo with a devotional nature, has said of 

 him, " He pauses between each morsel of food to give 

 thanks to Heaven," which is exactly the case if one con- 

 siders the half -note rests as the time required to devour 

 the morsels! But Wilson Flagg's description of the song 

 places the bird at once among the clergy, and one won- 

 ders whether the Vireo is not after all a religious charac- 

 ter, for he says: " The Preacher is more generally known 

 by his note, because he is incessant in his song. . . . 

 Though constantly talking, he takes the part of a 



