190 WOOD NOTES WILD. 
RED-EYED VIREO. — Contin. 
of studying birds through Nature, and not through books.— Minot, H. D.: 
Land-birds and Game-birds of N. E., p. 157. 
“It is a most persistent and tireless songster, whose earnest melody 
enlivens the sultry noon and the drowsy, listless after-hours of mid- 
summer days, which prove too much for the spirit of unwilling school- 
boys, but seem to have no depressing effect upon this indefatigable 
musician.” — Stearns, W. A.: N. E. Bird-life, p. 196. 
“ Everywhere in these States, at all hours of the day, from early dawn 
until evening twilight, his sweet, half-plaintive, half-meditative carol is 
heard. I know that I am not singular in my preference when I say 
that of all my feathered acquaintances, this is the greatest favorite I 
have.” — Samuels, E. A.: Our Northern and Eastern Birds, p, 271. 
“In moist and dark summer weather, his voice seems to be one con- 
tinued, untiring warble of exquisite sweetness; and in the most populous 
and noisy streets of Boston, his shrill and tender lay is commonly heard 
from the tall elms.” — Nuttall, T.: Manual of Ornithology, p. 354. 
See also Lunt, H.: Across Lots, p. 116. 
Energy expended in Bird-Song. 
The energy expended in the day-long singing of the 
vireo is a source of continuous wonderment. The Rev. 
J. G. Wood, a man well fitted to speak of indefatigable 
effort, has a passage on that prodigy of song, the English 
lark : — 
“The lark ascends until it looks no larger than a midge, and can with 
difficulty be seen by the unaided eye, and yet every note will be clearly 
audible to persons who are fully half a mile from the nest over which the 
bird utters its song. Moreover, it never ceases to sing for a moment, a 
feat which seems wonderful to us human beings, who find that a song of 
six or seven minutes in length, though interspersed with rests and pauses, 
is more than trying. Even a practised public speaker, though he can 
pause at the end of each sentence, finds the applause of the audience a 
very welcome relief. Moreover, the singer and speaker need to use no 
exertion save exercising their voices. Yet the bird will pour out a continu- 
ous song of nearly twenty minutes in length, and all the time has to support 
itself in the air by the constant use of its wings.” — Wood, Rev. J. G. 
