FAMILY Vlreonidx. 



disappear before one can adjust the opera-glassit is hel 

 But there can be no doubt about the identification of the 

 slippery little fellow if one will depend upon the ear 

 rather than the eye, for the song is a continuous warble 

 exclusively his own, although resembling in its general 

 free character that of the Purple Finch. Different 

 writers describe his voice as a rambling soprano; which 

 is all well enough in its way, but generalities, as a rule, 

 are unsatisfactory and misleading, and such a d<-< Tij.- 

 tion tells less than half the truth. There is more in the 

 Warbling Vireo's song than at first would appear. In 

 construction it is a smooth, continuous flow of about 

 nine or more notes of equal value. There is no other 

 Vireo that sings tins way. Again, the Warbling Vireo's 

 attempt at music does not resemble a song as much as it 

 does a bit of a fantasia, caprice, or the somewhat rapid 

 movement of a sonata. When the bird begins he runs 

 on until he has finished, without break, pause, or any 

 unevenness whatever. Here is a record from Saxton's 

 River, Vt., taken May 23, 1901: 



Twice 8va 



mp civs, 



So little is there of variation in the character of the 

 song, that a sufficient proof of that fact is found in the 

 record I made in Cambridge, Linnean Street, two years 

 earlier May 21, 1899. 



This song is constructively identical with the record 

 taken in Vermont. One needs to bear several points in 

 mind in learning the character of the Warbling Vino's 

 music. It is almost entirely without definite pitch that 

 is. tho bird does not seem to sing on any particular key 

 (lean not too emphatically state that fact); furthermore, 



154 



