RED-EYED VIEEO 123 



and exposed for sale in the French markets of 

 New Orleans under the name of ' petit grasset." 9 



The question may arise as to what the Vireos 

 and other little berry-eaters are doing with the 

 botany of the land, whether they are laying low 

 the wild fruits as they are the weeds. It is an 

 interesting subject. The difference lies just here. 

 The fruit-eaters want the soft pulp the fruit, 

 and either eject the hard pits or swallow them 

 whole, so merely acting as distributing agents 

 for the fruit stones ; but the weed destroyers eat 

 the seeds themselves, crushing the cases, and so 

 killing the germs of future weeds. Whatever 

 proportion of the Vireo's food may be vegetable, 

 it necessitates no modification of bill from the 

 slender insectivorous type (see Fig. 109, p. 192), 

 as it is only for cracking hard substances that the 

 Sparrows need the conical seed-eater type of bill. 

 (See Fig. 119, p. 193.) Neither does the berry- 

 eating habit of the Vireo lessen the length of the 

 journey which it makes in winter, together with 

 other insect-eaters ; for berries, it would seem, are 

 not as reliable a harvest as weed seeds, and Cen- 

 tral America, with its winter insects, seems to 

 offer the fullest larder. Being subject to enemies, 

 the birds migrate under cover of the night, and 

 some morning give us a delightful surprise by 

 filling with song a grove that was silent and 

 untenanted the night before. 



In the woods, the Vireos' nests are among the 



