VIREOS AND DRAGONFLIES. 



191 



these sands. Perchance he is looking for a snake with 

 which to break the monotony of his piscatorial meals. 

 Perhaps a mouse, a wood rat, or even a rabbit is oc- 

 casionally relished by this fish-eating bird. 



The red-eyed vireo sings as merrily and unceas- 

 ingly as on a day in 

 mid-May in Indiana. 

 The flowering dog- 

 wood, Cornus florida 

 L., blossoms here as 

 there. They take me 

 back to other days 

 when I chased the 

 slender black Argia 

 dragonflies along a 

 slow flowing, purling 

 brooklet of other 

 days when a bevy of 

 happy young folks 



their hearts full of joy their souls unused to care 

 followed where I led, and listened to my tales of the 

 life of a dragonfly. For, in those days, I, as well as 

 they, 



' ' Saw the dragonfly 

 Come from the pools where he did lie. 



' ' An inner impulse rent the veil 

 Of his old hnsk : from head to tail 

 Came out clear plates of sapphire mail. 



"He dried his wings; like gauze they grew. 

 Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew, 

 A living flash of light he flew. ' ' 



Fig. 59 Red-eyed Vireo. 



Vireo olivaceus L. 



