WARBLING VIREO. 181 
This sweetest and most constant warbler of the forest, ex- 
tending his northern migrations to the confines of Canada and 
along the coast of the Pacific to the Oregon, arrives from trop- 
ical America in Pennsylvania about the middle of April, and 
reaches this part of New England early in May. His livery, 
like that of the Nightingale, is plain and unadorned ; but the 
sweet melody of his voice, — surpassing, as far as Nature usually 
surpasses art, the tenderest airs of the flute, — poured out often 
from the rising dawn of day to the approach of evening, and 
vigorous even during the sultry heat of noon, when most other 
birds are still, gives additional interest to this little vocalist. 
While chanting forth his easy, flowing, tender airs, apparently 
without effort, so contrasted with the interrupted emphatical 
song of the Red-Eye, he is gliding along the thick and leafy 
branches of our majestic elms and tallest trees busied in quest 
of his restless insect prey. With us, as in Pennsylvania, the 
species is almost wholly confined to our villages, and even 
cities. It is rarely ever observed in the woods; but from the 
tall trees which decorate the streets and lanes, the almost in- 
visible musician, secured from the enemies of the forest, is 
heard to cheer the house and cottage with his untiring song. 
As late as the 2d of October I still distinguished his tuneful voice 
from amidst the yellow fading leaves of the linden, near which 
he had passed away the summer. The approaching dissolu- 
tion of those delightful connections which had been cemented 
by affection and the cheerless stillness of autumn, still called 
up a feeble and plaintive revery. Some days after this late 
period, warmed by the mild rays of the morning sun, I heard, 
as it were, faintly warbled, a parting whisper; and about the 
middle of this month our vocal woods and fields were once 
more left in dreary silence. 
When offended or irritated, our bird utters an angry "shay 
*¢shay, like the Catbird and the other Vireos, and sometimes 
makes a loud snapping with his bill. The nest of the Warbling 
Vireo is generally pendulous, and ambitiously and securely sus- 
pended at great elevations. In our elms I have seen one of 
these airy cradles at the very summit of one of the most gigan- 
