Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 



sides greenish yellow; wings have two distinct bars of 

 yellowish white. Yellow line from beak to and around the 

 eye, which has a white iris. Feathers of wings and tail 

 brownish and edged with yellow. 



Jiange— United States to the Rockies, and to the Gulf regions and 

 beyond in winter. 



Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. 



" Pertest of songsters," the white-eyed vireo makes what- 

 ever neighborhood it enters lively at once. Taking up a resi- 

 dence in the tangled shrubbery or thickety undergrowth, it 

 immediately begins to scold like a crotchety old wren. It 

 becomes irritated over the merest trifles — a passing bumblebee, 

 a visit from another bird to its tangle, an unsuccessful peck at a 

 gnat— anything seems calculated to rouse its wrath and set every 

 feather on its little body a-trembling, while it sharply snaps out 

 what might perhaps be freely constructed into " cuss- words." 



And yet the inscrutable mystery is that this virago meekly 

 permits the lazy cowbird to deposit an egg in its nest, and will 

 patiently sit upon it, though it is as large as three of her own tiny 

 eggs ; and when the little interloper comes out from his shell the 

 mother-bird will continue to give it the most devoted care long 

 after it has shoved her poor little starved babies out of the nest to 

 meet an untimely death in the smilax thicket below. 



An unusual variety of expression distinguishes this bird's voice 

 from the songs of the other vireos, which are apt to be monoto- 

 nous, as they are incessant. If you are so fortunate to approach 

 the white-eyed vireo before he suspects your presence, you may 

 hear him amusing himself by jumbling together snatches of the 

 songs of the other birds in a sort of potpourri ; or perhaps he will 

 be scolding or arguing with an imaginary foe, then dropping his 

 voice and talking confidentially to himself Suddenly he bursts 

 into a charming, simple little song, as if the introspection had 

 given him reason for real joy. All these vocal accomplishments 

 suggest the chat at once; but the minute your intrusion is discov- 

 ered the sharp scolding, that is fairly screamed at you from an 

 enraged little throat, leaves no possible shadow of a doubt as to 

 the bird you have disturbed. It has the most emphatic call and 

 song to be heard in the woods; it snaps its words off very 

 short. " Chicl-a-rer chick" is its usual call-note, jerked out 

 with great spitefulness. 



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