1902.
June 10
(No 3)
at length, I tried to make her leave the nest in order
that we might examine the contents. I found this no
easy matter without resorting to actual violence. But I finally
got my finger under her throat and pressing steadily upward
induced her to leave the eggs. In doing so she perched for
a moment on the edge of the nest before flying up into a
pine whence she berated us with the scolding chatter used
by this species & V. flavifrons when anxious about their eggs or young.
We happened to have a live Screech Owl with us which we
left perched on a log almost directly under the nest but,
the Vireo did not seem to notice it for she returned quietly
to the nest as soon as we had withdrawn a short distance.
When we visited her again an hour later she left the
nest before we quite got to it and began chattering as before,
calling up the male on this second occasion.
  Besides the two pairs of Solitary Vireos just mentioned
John Thayer has met with a third pair breeding in Lancaster
this season - in the Parkers' woods. This first nest, which
was nearly finished on May, was suspended about 7 feet above the ground from the central
branch of a small, dead and perfectly leafless white pine
sapling which stood among some grey birches near the edge
of a swamp. This nest (which I examined on June 5th)
was either deserted by the birds immediately after Mr. Thayer's first
visit or despoiled of its eggs by the Jays before he went to it
a second time. The Vireos built a second nest in a hemlock
10 feet above the ground & fully 100 yards from the site of the
first nest. Mr. Harriman found this second nest, on June 2nd,
I believe. Visiting it again on June 4th he found the pair
of Vireos scolding excitedly and dashing about the head of a Blue 
Jay who was perched within a foot of the nest. It contained 2 eggs
and the shells of a third lay on the ground beneath. A nest of D. virens
in a neighboring hemlock had also just been robbed by the Jay.
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