Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 



from branch to branch. Is it one of the unwritten laws of birds 

 that the smaller their bodies the greater their activity ? 



When you see one kinglet about, you may be sure there are 

 others not far away, for, except in the nesting season, its habits 

 are distinctly social, its friendliness extending to the humdrum 

 brown creeper, the chickadees, and the nuthatches, in whose 

 company it is often seen ; indeed, it is likely to be in almost any 

 flock of the winter birds. They are a merry band as they go ex- 

 ploring the trees together. The kinglet can hang upside down, 

 too, like the other acrobats, many of whose tricks he has learned ; 

 and it can pick off insects from a tree with as business-hke an 

 air as the brown creeper, but with none of that soulless bird's 

 plodding precision. 



In the early spring, just before this busy little sprite leaves us 

 to nest in Canada or Labrador — for heat is the one thing that he 

 can't cheerfully endure — a gushing, lyrical song bursts from his 

 tiny throat — a song whose volume is so out of proportion to the 

 bird's size that Nuttall's classification of kinglets with wrens 

 doesn't seem far wrong after all. 



Only rarely is a nest found so far south as the White Moun- 

 tains. It is said to be extraordinarily large for so small a bird ; 

 but that need not surprise us when we learn that as many as ten 

 creamy-white eggs, blotched with brown and lavender, are no 

 uncommon number for the pensile cradle to hold. How do the 

 tiny parents contrive to cover so many eggs and to feed such a 

 nestful of fledglings ? 



Solitary Vlreo 



(Vireo solitarius) Vireo or Greenlet family 



Called also: BLUE-HEADED VIREO 



Length — 5.5 to 7 inches. A little smaller than the English 

 sparrow. 



Male — Dusky olive above ; head bluish gray, with a white line 

 around the eye, spreading behind the eye into a patch. Be- 

 neath whitish, with yellow-green wash on the sides. Wings 

 dusky olive, with two distinct white bars. Tail dusky, some 

 quills edged with white. 



Female — Similar, but her head is dusky olive. 



Range — United States to plains, and the southern British prov- 

 inces. Winters in Florida and southward. 



^7S 



