THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated IVIagazine of Popular Ornithology. 



P6hlis>)ed IVIontblv. 



r.UME/T. 



Volume /T. (New Series). MARCH, 1902. Numbers. 



NOTES ON SOME YELLOW-THROATED VIREOS' NESTS. 

 By William R. Maxon. 



Most of us who are fond of birds have our particular favorites, — species 

 whicii for one reason or another or for many reasons or none at all appeal most 

 strongly to our affection. The Wood Pewee holds first place with me. The 

 subdued tints of his plumage, his alert behavior and plaintive querulous note 

 somehow commend him to my favor. Such another favorite, but a bird of quite 

 different parts is the Yellow-throated Vireo. Though not brilliant his colors 

 surpass those of the Pewee, and his notes denote a stronger frame, a more robust 

 spirit. In both, according to my observation, there is the same neighborly 

 interest "in the affairs of men;" but 1 know the Pewee well, before I had even 

 tried to master the Vireos. Primarily dwellers in the woodlands the Vireos of 

 our day are nearly as common in the towns. The Red-eyed is still most abundant 

 in the light woods and orchards; but the Warbling has come to be just as truly 

 a bird of town shade trees. In Central New York the Yellow-throats are 

 about equally divided between the shaded villiage streets and the patches of 

 woods nowhere very extensive in that farming locality. Not infrequently they 

 may be heartl from the tree-tops of the city parks; and how pleasantly then, 

 their ringing music contrasts with the babel of English Sparrows in the street. 



My first Yellow-throated Vireo' s nest was found in the village of Oneida 

 Castle, N. Y., in one of the lower drooping branches of a maple shade tree, 

 just over the sidewalk, and about fifteen feet from the ground. According to 

 my recollection it was so overrun with minute lice that the young birds were 

 dead. My inspection of the nest was brief; but it served as a revelation in the 

 wonders of bird architecture, and I have yet to learn of a race of more expert 

 builders. The next nest was near by at Oneida, (June 14, 1894), on the out- 

 skirts of the village, about thirty-five feet up in a hickory, and above the side- 



