The Nesting of the Yellow-throated Vireo 121 



The discovery of the nest -building was made, as is so often the case, 

 by seeing the bird gathering material. We were passing near the stable, 

 when underneath its rather deep eaves a small bird was seen to be flut- 

 tering, and we thought she was caught in a strong spider's web, as 

 before now I have found our Hummingbird ; but instead of this the 

 bird was gathering web for her uses, and soon flew away to the front 

 of the house, where we lost sight of her; but on coming up cautiously 

 we had the great joy of seeing her fastening the first sticky threads of 

 her new home to some outstretched twigs of a small low -growing elm 

 branch close by our window. Then my note-book came into requisi- 

 tion, and was so faithfully used until the fledglings left the nest that a 

 fairly accurate account may be given of what followed. 



1. The birds began their building on Sunday morning, June 2. By 

 the following Saturday, June 8, the nest was completed, so that they 

 took about one round week of not hurried, but of quite incessant work 

 to complete their home-making. 



2. They both worked, she of the somewhat modified yellow and 

 green and he with the deeper-colored throat and more vivid livery. It 

 was pretty to see and hear them about their work. There seemed to 

 be such a considerate and even courtly etiquette about it all. One 

 would come with a bit of material and find the other still engaged upon 

 the nest. Then he or she would perch close by, often with a little sub- 

 dued chirp, such as birds in their love-making know how to give, and 

 then, when the worker had finished his bit, with another answering 

 twitter he or she would quit the field, as if saying: " Now the way is 

 open for you." At times there would be a halt in their comings and 

 goings, filled in with the deep contralto tones of their answering notes, 

 as they fed among the branches or rested during the midday. 



3. The material for the nest was almost all of spider-web. This 

 was a matter of surprise to me. The Red-eye uses such generous bits 

 of thin bark and pieces of paper even. And there were occasional 

 thread-like shreds of some coarser fiber in the Yellow-throats' building, 

 but by far the larger part was of the twisted films of the spider. 



4. The manner in which the birds fastened this, part to part, and 

 then stretched the nest into shape, was a most interesting process. I 

 have often wondered, with the longer nest of the Baltimore Oriole, 

 how she manages toward the bottom or lower part of her nest — whether 

 she could reach all the way down from the outside and curve the grow- 

 ing pendant into form ? I have had hintings, too, in her case, of how 

 largely the work is done from the inside ; but with these Vireos and their 

 building right before me it was as if I had been taken into the nest- 

 architects' studio and shown plans and specifications and then allowed 

 to watch the construction itself. 



