RED-EYED VIEEO. 221 



pouclilike affairs of strips of plialde bark, liits of dead 

 wood, plant-liliers, tendrils, tine grasses, etc., firmly inter- 

 wos'en and suspended from tlie arms of a forked twig. 

 The eggs are white, with a few blaclv or brownish black 

 spots, chiefly about the Jarger end. 



The Vireos ai'e an exclusively American family, and 



nuirdjer some fifty species, of which seven reach the 



Eed-eyed Vireo northeastern States. Of these, 1 )y far 



I'ireo oUvaceus. the most comnion is the lied-e}'ed 

 riate Lix. Vireo. There are few favorable locali- 



ties in eastern I^ortli America where, in the suumier, 

 one may not hear the cheerful song of this bird. Still, 

 it is so well protected by the foliage, with which its 

 plumage agrees in color, that to those whose ear is iKjt 

 attnned to the nmsic of birds it is unknovs'n. But listen 

 near some grove of elms or ina.ples, and you will not fail 

 to hear its song — a somewhat broken, rambling recitative, 

 which no one has described so well as Wilson Flagg, 'who 

 calls this bird the Preacher, and interprets its notes as 

 " You see it — you know it — do you hear me ? — do you be- 

 lieve it ? " Tlie Red-eye evidently has an iiKpiiring mind, 

 for he never tires of asking these questions. Tie not 

 only sings all day, but seems unaffected by the heat of 

 summer, and at midday is often the only bird to l)e heard. 

 One would imagine that few birds ha<l a more even tem- 

 perament than this calm-voiced singer, Ymt when annoyed 

 he utters a complaining lohung — a sound which is a good 

 indication that something is wrong in the bird world. 



The Red-eye winters in the tropics, and reaches us in 

 the spring about May 1, remaining until October 15. 



A near relative of the Red-eye's is the Warbling 

 Vireo — a somewhat smaller bird, with a brown, in place 

 of red eye, and without the lilack margin above the white 

 eye-line which can be so easily seen in the Red-eye. The 

 Warbling Vireo is the less common of the two, and is 



