396 
The Red-eye Vireo 
the fluffy female, the feathers of the male were drawn closely about him, 
so that he looked slim and sleek. The neck seemed constricted, giving him 
a strangled appearance.” 
Few birds are as tame when on the nest as is the Vireo. Only this 
Spring I pulled down a twig where a bird was brooding her eggs and 
actually touched the bird on her breast with my finger before she would 
leave, and when I went away she immediately returned to her vigil. Dr. 
Anne E. Perkins, of Gowanda, N. Y., has written a story about the female 
Vireo that was so unusually tame, she tried the experiment of feeding it. 
In her account she says : 
‘T hastily caught a small, succulent green grasshopper and slowly, 
cautiously, advanced my hand till the grasshopper was within easy reach 
of the bird. The male kept up a constant scolding in the top of the apple 
tree containing the nest, while I stood trying to win his wife’s confidence. 
It seemed many weary minutes that she sat motionless or with a slight 
suspicion of fear in her little red eye, cowering 
closer to the eggs. Then, just as my hand ached 
intolerably and I was about to withdraw it, she made 
a slow movement of the head towards me — and hastily snatched the 
grasshopper. I was delighted and praised her audibly for her discrimina- 
tion and confidence. She devoured several more grasshoppers very read- 
ily, once the ice was broken. The male bird all the time seemed anxious 
and kept up a continual scolding. I made visits once or twice daily there- 
after, and she was perfectly fearless about taking food, eagerly accepting 
small flies and grasshoppers, invariably refusing worms, and showing- 
preference for grasshoppers. 
“She would allow me to stroke her, close my hand about her, almost 
lift her from the eggs, reach under her, etc. Once or twice she left the 
nest and flew at her mate when he was making demonstrations of fear 
and distress, knocked him smartly off his perch, snapping her bill and 
scolding vigorously, then took her place again on the eggs. It was exactly 
as if she told him that she would not be interfered with and that he could 
attend to his own affairs.” 
Feeding 
a Vireo 
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents, by the National Association Oi 
Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 
