524 HABITS OF THE WHITE-EYED OJREENLET 



of Eock Creek, near the city just named, marking where num- 

 berless rivulets make into thft main brook, are favorite resorts, 

 where the nests will be found in a bunch of sweet-brier, or ou 

 the wreathy stem of a blackberry-bush, or, perhaps still oftener, 

 at the very terminal fork of a slender, swaying branch of the 

 sapling, whose lower limbs reach into some shady nook just 

 over the bed of the rivulet — in any event, in a thicket, where 

 the Catbirds, Thrashers, Chats, Cardinal Grosbeaks, Maryland 

 Yellow-throats, and Carolina Wrens are all each others' neigh- 

 bors. The White-eye's liking for low watery places is still fur- 

 ther witnessed by its frequent resort to the swamps that border 

 the Potomac, in the same locality, where it nests about the very 

 edges of the reedy tracts, and even in their midst, on the 

 various little knolls that rise somewhat above the water-level. 

 In August and September, when one goes shooting Eeedbirds, 

 Blackbirds, and Sora Rails, in the marshes that lie about 

 Arlington, and along the course of the Eastern Branch, he is 

 pretty sure to be scolded for his pains by one after another of 

 these petulant little birds, which still linger in such places as I . 

 have described, in company with buffycolored young Maryland 

 Yellow-throats, and numberless reed-ragged Marsh Wrens. 



The White-eyed Vireo has always been notable, even in 

 groups of birds whose spirit is high, for its irritable tempera- 

 ment; and during the breeding season, nothing can surpass 

 the petulance and irascibility which it displays when its home 

 is too nearly approached, and the fuss it makes when its temper 

 is ruffled in this way. It skips about in a panicky state, as 

 regardless of exposure as a virago haranguing the crowd on a 

 street corner, seemingly at such loss for adequate expletives 

 that we may fancy it quite ready to say " Thank you ", if some- 

 body would only swear a little. Like the Wrens and Titmice — 

 like various birds, in fact, which live habitually in shrubbery, 

 where they have to peer and pry about to see well — these Vireos 

 show a good deal of curiosity and inquisitiveneps when any- 

 thing is going on that they do not quite understand ; and if we 

 take care not to frighten them into a flutter of excitement, 

 they frequently come almost within arms' reach by slow and 

 devious approaches, poising curiously on one twig after another, 

 and soliloquizing the while in their quaint fashion. Their 

 uneasiness, however, is chiefly exhibited during the breeding 

 season, and all their vehemence is but the excess of their con- 

 cern for their little families, which, as they seem to be aware. 



