Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 
from branch to branch. Is it one of the unwritten laws of birds 
that the smaller their bodies the greater their activity ? 
When you see one kinglet about, you may be sure there are 
others not far away, for, except in the nesting season, its habits 
are distinctly social, its friendliness extending to the humdrum 
brown creeper, the chickadees, and the nuthatches, in whose 
company it is often seen ; indeed, it is likely to be in almost any 
flock of the winter birds. They are a merry band as they go ex- 
ploring the trees together. The kinglet can hang upside down, 
too, like the other acrobats, many of whose tricks he has learned ; 
and it can pick off insects from a tree with as business-like an 
air as the brown creeper, but with none of that soulless bird’s 
plodding precision. 
In the early spring, just before this busy little sprite leaves us 
to nest in Canada or Labrador—for heat is the one thing that he 
can’t cheerfully endure—a gushing, lyrical song bursts from his 
tiny throat—a song whose volume is so out of proportion to the 
bird’s size that Nuttall’s classification of kinglets with wrens 
doesn’t seem far wrong after all. 
Only rarely is a nest found so far south as the White Moun- 
tains. It is said to be extraordinarily large for so small a bird ; 
but that need not surprise us when we learn that as many as ten 
creamy-white eggs, blotched with brown and lavender, are no 
uncommon number for the pensile cradle to hold. How do the 
tiny parents contrive to cover so many eggs and to feed sucha 
nestful of fledglings P 
Solitary Vireo 
(Vireo solitarius) Vireo or Greenlet family 
Called also: BLUE-HEADED VIREO 
Length—5.5 to 7 inches. A little smaller than the English 
sparrow. 
Male—Dusky olive above ; head bluish gray, with a white line 
around the eye, spreading behind the eye into a patch. Be- 
neath whitish, with yellow-green wash on the sides. Wings 
dusky olive, with two distinct white bars. Tail dusky, some 
quills edged with white. 
Female—Similar, but her head is dusky olive. 
Range—United States to plains, and the southern British prov- 
inces. Winters in Florida and southward. 
175 
