PHASES OF BIRD LIFE. 177 



for the nearest twig. Why, his wings will bear him 

 up on the buoyant air ! He has graduated from 

 the nursery and the grammar grade into the high 

 school. 



Every year has its eccentricities, so to speak ; 

 that is, the character of the weather and other 

 modifying causes afford the faunal life an occasion 

 for a development that is peculiar. Thus the 

 observations made by the naturalist one year are not 

 necessarily mere repetitions of those made other 

 years. Nature is not often guilty of tautology. I 

 yield therefore to the temptation to add a few 

 chronicles made during the spring of 1893, which, 

 I hope, will not destroy the unity of this article on 

 bird nurseries. One day in June, while strolling 

 through the woods, I heard the song of a red-eyed 

 vireo. It was a kind of talking song, or recitative, 

 as if the bird -vi^e^ discoursing on some favorite 

 theme, and improvising his music as he went. His 

 voice was so loud and clear that I could hear it far 

 away, drifting through the green, embowered aisles 

 of the woods. This vigorous chanson was a surprise, 

 for I have never before known this vireo to remain 

 in my neighborhood during the summer. He mostly 

 hies farther north. But a still greater surprise lay 

 in ambush for me a few days later, in one of my 

 rambles through the woods. Suddenly there was a 

 light flutter of wings near my head, and there hung 

 a tiny nest on the low, swaying branches of a 

 sapling. 



That it was a vireo's nest was evident, for it was 

 12 



