PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR. 117 



on leaves and twigs ready for the devourer. But 

 little is obtained in this way, for to surprise and cap- 

 ture an insect before it can move is much more 

 difficult than to fly after and overtake it. There are 

 vireos in my yard every summer. Their nests are in 

 the three beeches and elsewhere along the hill-side, 

 and the white-eyes are always down in the meadows. 

 These birds are very abundant, and it is no task to 

 watch them closely. Their methods are different, 

 but require equal alertness, and their skill is not to 

 be underrated. They are past masters in the art of 

 catching flies, and therefore a blessing to the horti- 

 culturist ; for their activity is unceasing and, like all 

 insectivorous birds, they are always hungry. Vireos, 

 however, are more interesting as winged musicians 

 than as " feathered appetites," yet we are never 

 much impressed by the performances of these birds. 

 The red-eye's is a languid song, and when kept up 

 for hours during the heat of a summer day, while the 

 bird may be trying, as Thoreau suggests, to lift our 

 thoughts above the dusty street, we are sometimes 

 moved to wish that it would lift itself and give us 

 silence. The white-eye's song is too energetic and 

 "screechy" to be musical ; still, when we hear it ring- 

 ing along the wooded slopes and across the pastures, 

 it has a thrilling influence. It is evidence that others 

 are up and doing if we are not. 



Vireos are arboreal, and yet we can always see 

 them. They do not intentionally hide in the tree- 

 tops, nor are they afraid of man. There is a sickly, 

 worm-eaten linden near my kitchen door, and there 



