400 DIVISION I. VEKTEBEAL ANIMALS. — CLAS5 II. AVES. 



wc have. Wc always loved it ; and we can never look upon one after It is 

 killed, no matter how naturally it is preserved, without a sad feeling, as if 

 it were one of our own most dear friends dead before us. 



Says Nuttall, — 



"The song is delivered almost without any sensible interval, with e.arnest 

 animation, in a pathetic, tender, and jileasing strain, well calculated to pro- 

 duce calm and thoughtful reflection in tjic sensitive miud. Yet, while this 

 heavenly reverie strikes on the human ear with such peculiar effect, the 

 iiumble nuisician himself seems but little concerned ; for all the while, per- 

 haps, that this flowing chorus enchants the hearer, he is casually hopping 

 from spray to spray in (piest of his active or crawling prey ; and if a cessa- 

 tion occurs in his almost untiring la}-, it is occasioned by the caterpillar or 

 fly he has fortunately just eajjtured. So unaftected are tlicse delightful 

 efforts of instinct, and so unconscious is the performer, apparently, of this 

 jileasing ficulty bestowed upon him by nature, that he may truly be con- 

 sidered as a messenger of harmony to man (dune, appoiuted by the fiat of 

 the creative power. AVantonly to destroy these delightfid aids to senti- 

 mental happiness ought therefore to be viewed, not only as an act of bar- 

 barity, but almost as a sacrilege." 



The Iled-eyed Vireo commences building al)out the first week in June, 

 frequenting the woixls rather more commonly tliaii the pastures and orchards, 

 although it often breeds in these places. The nest is pensile, and is hung 

 from the fork of a small limb of a tree, seldom more than fifteen or twenty 

 feet from the ground. It is constructed of thin strips of cedar bark, pieces 

 of wasps' nests, spiders' nests, pieces of caterpillars' silk, and other pliable 

 materials. These are woven together neatly and compactly, and .aggluti- 

 nated together by the bird's saliva. It is suspended in the form of a basket 

 from the forked twig to which it is attached, or rather firmly sewed. It is 

 lined with narrow strips of grape-vine bark, pine leaves, and sometimes fine 

 grass. On the outside are often visible bits of rotten wood, fragments of 

 newspaper, and hornet's nest. One specimen in our collection, obtained in 

 ]\Iaine, is constructed almost entirely of pieces of the bark of the white birch. 

 It is a very neat fabric. The eggs are four in number, pure white in color, 

 and thinly spotted, chiefly at the great end, with dots of brownish-black. 

 Measurement of the eggs average .80 Ijy .60 inch. Two broods are often 

 reared in the season. The period of incubation is twelve days. 



Of our Yii'cos there are some thirty species distributed throughout the 

 Xew World. They are neatly plumagcd birds, and of interesting habits. 

 A very carefully prepared list of them, witli descriptions, may be found in 

 Baird's Ivesicw of North American Birds, published under the auspices of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D. C. 



