126 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



web-like substance that look as if taken from co- 

 coons are fastened on for ornament. 



What could you have more daintily pretty? 

 Nothing after the four white, delicately wreathed 

 oval eggs are laid on the maple wing stems in the 

 bottom. 



On such a nest as this, with the tender green 

 leaves to shield her from stray sunbeams, and the 

 wind to rock her gently back and forth, brooding 

 must lose some of its wearisome monotony ; and 

 you are tempted to account for the difference be- 

 tween the nervousness of some bird mothers and 

 the contented trustfulness of the vireo. 



One day I accidentally surprised a vireo on her 

 nest. Here was a chance to see her red eyes. I 

 leveled my glasses at them and stared with the in- 

 sistent curiosity of an enthusiast. Nearer and 

 nearer I crept, and actually got within two feet of 

 the tree before she stirred. Then she flew off 

 with only a mildly complaining whee-ough, and 

 sat down in a tree near by to see what I would do 

 next. But just then I espied a wasp's nest about 

 two feet over hers, and not waiting to see if it was 

 " to let," retreated, wondering at the proximity. 



There were a number of vireo families that I 

 was watching last spring, and one of them built 

 so low that by pulling down the end of the branch 

 I could reach into the nest. One day when I 

 went to examine the eggs they had turned into a 

 family of such big yellow-throated youngsters that 

 they filled the nest. 



