30 Bird Life Stories 



have met with some in every part of the United States which 

 I have visited. 



Many remain in Louisiana, where they rear two broods, 

 perhaps sometimes three, in a season. Of this, however, I am 

 not quite certain. I never saw them alight on the ground, 

 unless for the purpose of drinking or of procuring fibrous 

 roots for their nests. They are fond of sipping the dewdrops 

 that hang at the extremities of leaves. Their sorties after 

 insects seldom extend beyond the bushes. 



About the ist of April the White-eyed Vireo forms a nest 

 of dry slender twigs, broken pieces of grasses and portions of 

 old hornets' nests, which have so great a resemblance to paper 

 that the nest appears as if studded with bits of that substance. 

 It is lined with fine fibrous roots and the dried filaments of the 

 Spanish moss. The nest is cup-shaped and pensile, and is 

 fastened to two or three twigs, or to a loop of a vine. The 

 eggs are from four to five, of a pure white, with a few dark 

 spots near the larger end. In those districts where the Cow- 

 bird is found it frequently drops one of its eggs among them. 



I have seen the first brood from the nest about the middle 

 of May. Unless disturbed while upon its nest, this bird is 

 extremely sociable, and may be approached within a few feet, 

 but when startled from the nest it displays the anxiety com- 

 mon to all birds on such occasions. The difference of color 

 in the sexes is scarcely perceptible. 



Geographical Distribution 



The White-eyed Vireo is found through a large part of the United 

 States, ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in 

 one direction and from southern New England and Minnesota to the 

 Gulf of Mexico in the other. In winter it extends beyond out 

 southern borders into Guatemala and Honduras. 



