566 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
spicuous materials. The eggs are three to five, most often four, and are 
pure white, sparsely spotted with brown and black. They average .81 
by .56 inches. Very frequently Cowbirds’ eggs are found in the nest and 
the Vireo frequently deserts its nest on account of this intruder. 
Wilson Flagg speaks of this bird as the ‘‘Preacher” and describes his 
song as follows: ‘(His style of preaching is not declamation. Though 
constantly talking, he takes the part of a deliberative orator who explains 
his subject in a few words and then makes a pause for his hearers to reflect, 
upon it. We might suppose him to be repeating moderately, with a pause 
between each sentence ‘you see it—you know it—do you hear me?—do you 
believe it? All these strains are delivered with a rising inflection at the 
close and with a pause as if waiting for an answer.” B cknell calls him 
“a most untiring vocalist, maintaining his song almost uninterruptedly 
Tig. 133. Red-eyed Vireo on nest. 
From Bird Lore. Courtesy of Frank M. Chapman. 
through the summer and only relinquishing it in September from the 
first to the tenth.” 
According to Ridgway “It is probable that we have no more beneficial 
bird than this species, noxious and destructive insects of numerous kinds 
constituting its principal food” (Birds of Illinois, p. 182). All the vireos 
are similar in their feeding habits and spend most of their time gleaning 
insects from the foliage of shrubs and trees. Probably they consume 
more spanworms and leaf-rollers than any other group of birds, but they 
are not slow to avail themselves of any unusual supply of insects and 
they eat beetles, bugs, and even grasshoppers apparently with equal 
readiness and impartiality. Professor Aughey of Nebraska found that 
during years of invasion by the Rocky Mountain locust the Red-eyed 
Vireo ate the young hoppers very freely, four-fifths of its food at one time 
consisting of this species. 
During the late summer and autumn the Red-eye eats seeds and berries 
