236 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



short, broken sentences in triplets, given as he hunts over the 

 branches for food. 'Where's a worm? Where's a caterpillar? 

 Where's a worm?' he queries as he goes, answering his own 

 question very comfortably to himself." Mr. Butler says, "It 

 seems to say, 'See it? See it? Who are you? Cheer up.' ' : Mr. 

 Wm. L. Bailey says : "Listen to the persuasive tones of the red- 

 eyed vireo soft and sweet and full of eloquence, bidding us 

 cast aside our griefs and be as happy as he." Mr. H. D. Mi- 

 nott says : "The red-eyed vireos have also a chip, a chatter like 

 a miniature of the oriole's scold (and to be heard in the season 

 of courtship), and a particularly characteristic querulous note, 

 which, like others, can not be described accurately; hence the 

 advantage of studying birds through nature^ and not through 

 books." Elsewhere I have spoken of the difficulty in inter- 

 preting the songs of our birds. Mr. Minott is right when he 

 says : "Hence the advantage of studying birds through Nature, 

 and not through books." 



The warblers and vireos are among our most useful birds. 

 Perhaps the vireos are the most useful. They are just as busy 

 workers as the warblers, and instead of only making us a visit 

 in the spring and autumn, as most of the warblers do, they re- 

 main with us throughout the summer. Hot summer days seem 

 to have no terrors for them. From early dawn to late dusk 

 they untiringly and unceasingly are at the work of taking the 

 eggs and larvae of harmful insects from the leaves of our 

 trees. As one author has well said, "They are, first and fore- 

 most, caterpillar eaters, but they also do great good by their 

 fondness for bugs and weevils, May beetles, inch worms and 

 leaf-eating beetles." Professor King examined the stomachs 

 of forty-nine of these birds and found that their principal food 

 consisted of fifty-six larvae, principally caterpillars ; thirty-two 

 insects' eggs, sixty-seven chinch bugs, thirty-two beetles and 

 six grasshoppers, and that fourteen of them had eaten vege- 

 table food. Dr. A. K. Fisher of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture says that they are extremely fond of the aromatic fruits 

 of the benzoin bush, sassafras and magnolias, and that when 

 they gather together along the Gulf Coast in the autumn they 

 feed exclusively on the berries of the magnolia and become ex- 

 ceedingly fat. 



