208 WAKE-ROBIN 
The vireos, or greenlets, are a sort of connecting 
link between the warblers and the true flycatchers, 
and partake of the characteristics of both. 
The red-eyed vireo, whose sweet soliloquy is one 
of the most constant and cheerful sounds in our 
woods and groves, is perhaps the most noticeable 
and abundant species. The vireos are a little larger 
than the warblers, and are far less brilliant and 
variegated in color. 
There are five species found in most of our woods, 
namely, the red-eyed vireo, the white-eyed vireo, 
the warbling vireo, the yellow-throated vireo, and 
the solitary vireo, — the red-eyed and warbling be- 
ing most abundant, and the white-eyed being the 
most lively and animated songster. I meet the lat- 
ter bird only in the thick, bushy growths of low, 
swampy localities, where, eluding the observer, it 
pours forth its song with a sharpness and a rapidity 
of articulation that are truly astonishing. This 
strain is very marked, and, though inlaid with the 
notes of several other birds, is entirely unique. The 
iris of this bird is white, as that of the red-eyed is 
red, though in neither case can this mark be distin- 
guished at more than two or three yards. In most 
cases the-iris of birds is a dark hazel, which passes 
for black. 
The basket-like nest, pendent to the low branches 
in the woods, which the falling leaves of autumn 
reveal to all passers, is, in most cases, the nest of 
the red-eyed, though the solitary constructs a simi- 
lar tenement, but in much more remote and secluded 
localities. 
