156 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
white; eye-stripe dusky. Under parts, white; sides olive- 
shaded. Wings and tail, generally dusky. Iris red. 
(b). The nest.is hung from a fork, usually near the end of 
a limb, between four and twenty feet above the ground, in the 
woods, in a shade-tree, in an orchard-tree, or occasionally in a 
pine. It is small, and cup-shaped ; but, though very service- 
able, is rarely very neatly made. It is constructed of strips 
of thin bark, occasionally of that of the white birch, is lined 
almost invariably with pine-needles, where pines exist, and is 
sometimes ornamented, if I may say so, with chips, bits of 
newspaper or wasps’ nests, and caterpillar’s silk. It is finished 
here about the first of June; and in the first week of that 
month four or five eggs are laid. These eggs average 83 X °62 
of an inch, and are white, with a few brownish-black spots at 
the larger end. A second set is sometimes laid in July. 
(c). When I announce that I am going to write about the 
habits of one of our most familiar birds and the most voluble 
songster that we possess, who all through the day, when nearly 
every other bird is quiet, prolongs his cheerful warble in almost 
every grove—sometimes even among the trees of our cities, 
though such haunts he usually avoids—many will know that I 
refer to the Red-eyed Vireo. These vireos may be found 
throughout New England, in the latter part, if not nearly the 
whole, of May, in the summer-months, and in September. 
They inhabit many kinds of woods, also groves, and clumps or 
rows of trees about houses, particularly those near wooded land. 
They show more familiarity to man than the other species, 
except the Warbling Vireos, and are almost everywhere common 
and well-known. They rarely pursue insects in the air in the 
manner of the flycatchers, but seize them as they themselves 
flutter among the branches of the trees, in which they usually 
remain at no very great height from the ground. I have noticed 
that the males, while the females are upon their nests, generally 
select a spot at some distance from them, which they make 
their haunt and concert-grove. They have never struck me as 
very active insect-hunters, since they devote so much of their 
time to music. They evidently, however, never suffer from 
