RED-EYED VIREO. 125 



If its search among the lower branches is suc- 

 cessful it runs along the length of a limb, holding 

 its worm out at bill's length, shaking it over the 

 limb as if afraid of dropping it before it is in con- 

 dition to swallow. 



But although one becomes attached to the cheery 

 bird that sings at its work from morning till night, 

 in park and common, as well as about the country 

 house, the best way to know it is to follow one of 

 the family into the edge of the woods where it 

 builds its nest. 



Such an exquisite little workman as you discover 

 it to be ! It wonders how the meadow-lark and 

 bobolink can like to nest on the damp ground, and 

 how the woodpeckers can live in a tree trunk, 

 how can they ever keep their babies quiet without 

 a cradle ! The coarse mud-plastered house of the 

 robin fills it with lofty surprise. For its part it 

 usually chooses a lithe sapling that responds to all 

 the caprices of the wind, and from the fork of one 

 of its twigs hangs a dainty birch-bark basket. 



For lining it picks up leaf-bud cases, curving 

 stems of the maple seeds, wings the children 

 call them, and now and then a spray of hem- 

 lock. With the artist's instinct it puts the strips 

 of brown bark next the lining, and keeps the shin- 

 ing silvery bits for the outside. Sometimes it 

 puts in pieces of white, crisp, last year's leaves, 

 and often steals the side of a small wasp's nest to 

 weave in with the rest, while bits of white cob- 



