RED-EYED VIREO. 287 
power. This Vireo is one of the earliest of our spring musicians,.as it is also one of 
the most constant and untiring in its song, continuing to sing long after most of the 
other vocalists have become silent, and even until it is about to leave us, at the close 
of September. The tender and pathetic utterances of this Vireo, uttered with so much 
apparent animation, to judge from their sound, are in striking contrast to the apparent 
indifference of unconsciousness of the little vocalist who, while thus delighting the ear 
of the listener, seems to be all the while chiefly bent on procuring its daily supply of 
food, which it pursues with unabated ardor.” 
The Red-eyed Vireo is a common bird of the old apple orchards and of the shade- 
trees surrounding the house of the farmer. Its sweet soliloquy is one of the most 
familiar and cheerful sounds near our rural homes. In the high elms and sugar maples 
near my parental home in Wisconsin a pair of these Vireos took up their abode every 
year. Like the Catbird, the Baltimore Oriole, and the Bluebird, this Vireo is one of my 
special favorites among the feathered choir living near our rural homes. 
The food of this bird, which consists chiefly of worms and other small inse¢ts, is 
procured among the branches and the leaves of the trees. Its movements are rather 
slow and very peculiar, being somewhat like those of the Warblers. While moving 
slowly along the branches it peers to the right and left, explores the under-side of the 
leaves as well as the upper, looks into the crevices of the bark, and hops and flits a 
few feet farther, to examine another hunting ground. The song may always be heard 
while the bird procures its food among the branches. The insects captured are usually 
not in motion, but sometimes, when a beetle or a moth tries to escape, it will take it 
on the wing. In the fall when insects are scarce, this Vireo feeds, according to Mr. 
Nuttall, eagerly upon the berries of the cornel and the Viburnum dentatum. In Texas 
I have observed in the fall that they eat the aromatic berries of the Mexican mulberry’, 
the myrtle holly’, and the youpon?. 
The pensile, cup-like nest of the Red-eye is a very beautiful and compact structure. 
It is always built in horizontal branches of trees, usually from six to twenty feet above 
the ground. In some cases it may even be higher, but I have never found it lower than 
six feet. The extremity of some horizontal twig of a sugar maple, beech, or other tree 
with slender straggling branches is always selected for a nesting-site. I have almost 
always found that the nests in the interior of the forest are usually lower than those 
built in single shade-trees near our dwellings. The pensile structure is always suspended 
from a forked horizontal twig. It is felted with the most miscellaneous materials. In the 
coniferous region of Wisconsin it is mainly composed of fine bark-strips, pine needles, 
hemp-like fibres, skeleton leaves, bits of paper, rotten wood, and wasp nests. The 
interior is lined with fine grasses and pine needles. When the female begins to deposit 
her eggs, the outside of the nest shows only little decoration. This is finally completed 
by the female, from materials carried by the male. She fastens, probably with saliva, 
bits of moss and wasp nests, curly bark of the paper birch, spider nests and webs to 
the outside. This serves not only as a beautiful decoration, but gives the structure 
strength and a more natural appearance. Nests in south-western Missouri were built 
similar, but were decorated on the outside with fine pieces of rotten wood and a few 
1 Callicarpa Americana. 2 Ilex Dahoon, 3 I. Cassine. 
