THE OOLOGIST. 



235 



they are behind you singiug from the 

 tangle, and you only occasionally ob- 

 tain a glimpse of them flitting among 

 the stems and leaves. However, press 

 aside the bushes and crawl into the 

 tangle, crouching among brambles 

 which penetrate all the salient features 

 of your anatomy. Soon you will hear 

 the restless creatures warbling even 

 above your head. At first he sings 

 "■quit, oh quit, now quit, why can't you 

 .hearV in the manner above described, 

 and then perhaps he soliloquizes softly 

 to himself in a subdued, faraway tone, 

 barely audible to your attentive ear — a 

 song which entirely captivates you, and 

 you learn to love the shy, modest song- 

 ster. 



Along the edge of the woods north of 

 my home town, there was formerly a 

 thicket of wild plum trees, bordering a 

 small branch which flowed into the 

 creek some eighty rods beyond. The 

 thicket has now almost disappeared, 

 and on either side of the branch are 

 cultivated fields, but fringing the 

 branch are small bushes of hazel, plum, 

 alder, and wild grape vines. It was 

 there that my ears were first tuned to 

 the melody of Bell's Vireo, and there I 

 first studied its habits. Forty rods 

 farther north along the same branch is 

 the remnant of the plum grove, inter- 

 spersed with volunteer bushes and 

 vines, forming another tangle where 

 this vireo sings and breeds unmolested, 

 except by such cranks as oui'selves. 

 Across the creek, and extending forty 

 rods beyond, is a narrow, abandoned 

 road between two hedgerows, now 

 tangled almost impassable with bushes 

 and vines, amid which hang the tene- 

 ments of Bell's and the White-eyed Vi- 

 reo, though the latter is the more 

 numerous in this haunt. But Bell's 

 Vireo, though losing none of its shy- 

 ness, often makes its residence in more 

 public, though not more open, situa- 

 tions. Wild blackberry, hazel, and 

 alder bushes overhanging ditches along 



roadsides are frequented, and its pecu- 

 liar, characteristic song greets the 

 passers-by, who are generally deaf and 

 blind to the rounds and sights ever in- 

 viting our attention. 



The species begins to nest soon after 

 the middle of May. On May 19th, a 

 friend who was collecting with me, 

 found a nest of Bell's Vireo containing 

 one egg, which we left until May 24th, 

 when we found four fresh eggs. This 

 nest was suspended by the brim from 

 several twigs, two feet from the ground 

 on the outer side of wild plum bushes, 

 along a hedge crossing the little branch 

 previously mentioned. While nests of 

 most of the other Vireos are suspended 

 from two forking horizontal twigs, the 

 nest of this species often depends for 

 its support on more than two twigs. 



The nest was well concealed by sur- 

 rounding leaves and bushes, and only 

 by pulling aside the stems, can the 

 structure usually be found, or else by 

 getting down where one can look 

 through the stems, unobstructed by 

 leaves. Like all the low-nesting 

 Vireos, Bell's is very untidy about its 

 home, a characteristic of the site being 

 the amount of white excrement dropped 

 on the subjacent leaves, rendering the 

 premises ill-kept and filthy. The nest 

 itself, however, catches none of this 

 matter, and is kept fresh and clean. 



Both male and female, being seldom 

 far away from their lowly home, are 

 jealous watchers of its privacy, and 

 strongly object to an examination by 

 intruders. When their nest is dis- 

 turbed, both birds utter a scolding 

 wren-like noise represented by the 

 sound of pa in the word pair, repeated 

 rapidly, more rapidly at times by the 

 female than one can count, and they 

 will fly quite near the observer in their 

 nervous efforts to protect their proper- 

 ty and embryonic family. 



Seven nests, examined thus far this 

 season, show a similarity in location 

 and construction. One found on June 



