150 



VIREOS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



however, they are common throughout New England, so common, in fact* 

 that it is difficult, even in the streets of our towns and many of our tree 

 shaded cities, to find a spot which is not reached by the sound of their en- 

 livening songs. 



In spite of all this, there are many people, too many in fact to-day, who 

 will say that they never saw nor heard a vireo to know it. Most every one 

 who begins the study of birds finds the vireos difficult to determine. Yet 

 they are comparatively easy to distinguish mainly on account of their songs, 

 each species having its peculiar utterance, which is always so different from 

 that of all other species of birds as to render it at once recognizable . For 

 tie benefit of those who know nothing of the vireos, I will begin at the be- 

 ginning and try to give some points by which these birds can be identified. 



The vireos of New England are, with one exception, ( the yellow-throat- 

 ed )very plainly colored birds, greenish above, sometimes with the head 

 bluish or grayish, and white beneath, with no streakings or other prominent 



Fig. 69. 



Head of Logger-head Shrike. 



markings. How then shall we distinguish these birds from others which 

 may chance to be of abdut the same size and general coloration ? For ex- 

 ample, a female pine warbler is not strikingly different in coloration from a 

 warbling vireo. I answer, by form and motion. The vireos have a large 

 thick bill hooked at the tip, and a large head. All of their motions are 

 comparatively slow. They even move their heads quite slowly ; in short, all 

 of their actions are performed with a deliberation quite at variance with the 

 active, restless motion of the warblers. 



When we come to examine the skins of vireos and compare them with 

 those of the warblers, we find one reason for the slowness of movement in 

 the vireos in the fact that the anterior toes are bound together as far as the 

 first joint from the base. A bird with its toes so fettered cannot jump about 

 among the foliage as readily as can one, the toes of which are free to the 



