Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Bird. 



"You see it-you know it-do you hear me ? Do you be- 

 .eve ,t f ,s Wilson Flaggs famous interpretation of the song of 

 h.s commonest of ail the vireos. that you cannot mistake with 

 uch a key. He calls the bird the preacher from its declamatory 



style, an up-and-down warble delivered with a rising inHection 



at the close and followed by an impressive silence, as if the liule 



green orator were saying, " I pause for a reply " 



Notwithstanding its quiet coloring, that so closely resembles 



the leaves ,t hunts among, this vireo is rather more noticeable 

 han Its relatives because of its slaty cap and the black-and-white 



charactTrislics'^'' '^'' '''''' '" ''^'^"'°" '° '^' '°"^' ''"' '^^ "^''^'^ 

 Whether she is excessively stupid or excessively kind the 

 mother-vireo has certainly won for herself no end of ridicule by 

 a^Iowm^ the cowbird to deposit a stray egg in the exquisitely 

 made pensile nest, where her own tiny white eggs are lying 

 and though the young cowbird crowd and worry her little fledff 

 Imgs and eat their dinner as fast as she can bring it in. no dis- 

 pleasure or grudging is shown towards the dusky intruder that 

 is sure to upset the rightful heirs out of the nest before they are 

 able to ily. ■' 



In the heat of a midsummer noon, when nearly every other 

 bird s voice is hushed, and only the locust seems to rejoice in 



bnnt T', '""'^'"''/''' ''"'' '"^-'^'^ ''''^ ^°^^ persistently 

 about Its business of gathering insects from the leaves, not flit- 

 ting nervously about like a warbler, or taking its food on the 

 wing like a flycatcher, but patiently and industriously dining 

 where it can, and singing as it goes. 



Wnen a worm is caught it is first shaken against a branch to 

 kill It before it is swallowed. Vireos haunt shrubbery and trees 

 with heavy foliage, all their hunting, singing, resting, and home- 

 building being done among the leaves-never on the ground. 



White-eyed Vireo 



(yireo noveboracensis) Vireo or Greenlet family 



Length-^ to S.3 inches. An inch shorter than the English 

 sparrow. i-n^iisu 



''^''''^rTvi.'I''"'' tT^PP"" 5^""^' ^'''^^^ Olive-green, washed with 

 grayish. 1 hroat and underneath white; the breast and 



177 



