352 
A Woodland Intimate. 
to refuse all further overtures. In the 
end, nevertheless, as I have said, she ate 
the very last insect I had to give her. 
During the meal she did something 
which as a display of nonchalance was 
really amazing. The eggs got misplaced, 
in the course of her twisting about, and 
after vainly endeavoring to rearrange 
them with her feet, as I had seen her 
do on several occasions, she ducked her 
head into the nest, clean out of sight 
under her feathers, and set matters to 
rights with her beak. I was as near to 
her as I could well be, without having 
her actually in my hand, yet she delib- 
erately put herself entirely off guard, 
apparently without the slightest misgiv- 
ing ! 
Fresh from this adventure, and all 
aglow with pleasurable excitement, I 
met a friend in the city, a naturalist of 
repute, and one of the founders of the 
American Ornithologists’ Union. Of 
course I regaled him with an account of 
my wonderful vireo (he was the man 
to whom I had half promised the nest) ; 
and on his expressing a wish to see her, 
I invited him out for the purpose that 
very afternoon. I smile to remember 
how full of fears I was, as he promptly 
accepted the invitation. The bird, I de- 
clared to myself, would be like the or- 
dinary baby, who, as everybody knows, 
is never so stupid as when its fond 
mother would make a show of it before 
company. Yesterday it was so bright 
and cunning ! Never was baby like it. 
Yesterday it did such and such unheard- 
of things ; but to-day, alas, it will do 
nothing at all. However, I put on a 
bold face, filled my pen-box with rose- 
leaves, exchanged my light-colored hat 
for the black one in which my pet had 
hitherto seen me, furnished my friend 
with a field-glass, and started with him 
for the wood. The nest was occupied 
(I believe I never found it otherwise), 
and, stationing my associate in a favor- 
able position, I marched up to it, when, 
lo, the bird at once took wing. This was 
[September, 
nothing to be disconcerted about, the 
very promptness of the action malting 
it certain that the sitter must have been 
the male. The pair were both in sight, 
and the female would doubtless soon fill 
the place which her less courageous lord 
had deserted. So it turned out, and 
within a minute everything was in readi- 
ness for a second essay. This proved 
successful. The first insect was instant- 
ly laid hold of, whereupon I heard a 
suppressed exclamation from behind the 
field-glass. When I rejoined my friend, 
having exhausted my supplies, nothing 
would do but he must try something of 
the kind himself. Accordingly, seizing 
my hat, which dropped down well over 
his ears, he made up to the tree. The 
bird pecked his finger familiarly, and 
before long he came rushing back to the 
path, exclaiming that he must find some- 
thing with which to feed her. After 
overturning two or three stones he un- 
covered an ant’s nest, and, moistening 
his forefinger, thrust it into a mass of 
eggs. With these he hastened to the 
vireo. She helped herself to them 
eagerly, and I could hear him counting, 
“ One, two, three, four,” and so on, as 
she ate mouthful after mouthful. 
Now, then, he wished to examine the 
contents of the nest, especially as it 
was the first of its kind which he had 
ever seen out-of-doors. But the owner 
was set upon not giving him the oppor- 
tunity. He stroked her head, brushed 
her wings, and, as my note-book puts it, 
“ poked her generally ; ” and still she 
kept her place. Finally, as he stood on 
one side of her and I on the other, we 
pushed the branch down, down, till she 
was fairly under our noses. Then she 
stepped off ; but even now, it was only 
to alight on the very next twig, and face 
us calmly ; and we had barely started 
away before we saw her again on duty. 
Brave bird ! My friend was exceeding- 
ly pleased, and I not less so ; though 
the fact of her making no difference be- 
tween us was something of a shock to 
A Woodland Intimate. 
353 
1887.] 
my self-conceit, endeavor as I might to 
believe that she had welcomed him, if 
not in my stead, yet at least as my 
friend. What an odd pair we must have 
looked in her eyes ! Possibly she had 
heard of the new movement for the pro- 
tection of American song-birds, and took 
us for representatives of the Audubon 
Society. I 
Desiring to make some fresh experi- 
ment, I set out the next morning with a 
little water and a teaspoon, in addition 
to my ordinary outfit of rose-leaves. 
The mother bird was at home, and with- 
out hesitation dipped her bill into the 
water, — the very first solitary vireo, I 
dare be bound, that ever drank out of a 
silver spoon ! Afterwards I gave her 
the insects, of which she swallowed 
twenty-four as fast as I could pick them 
up. Evidently she was hungry, and ap- 
preciated my attentions. There was 
nothing whatever of the coquettishness 
which she had sometimes displayed. On 
the contrary, she leaned forward to wel- 
come the tidbits, one by one, quite as if 
it were the most natural tiling in the 
world for birds to be waited upon in 
this fashion by their human admirers. 
Toward the end, however, a squirrel 
across the way set up a loud bark, and 
she grew nervous ; so that when it came 
to the twenty-fifth louse, which was the 
last I could find, she was too much pre- 
occupied to care for it. 
At this point a mosquito stung my 
neck, and, killing it, I held it before her. 
She snapped at it in a twinkling, but re- 
tained it between her mandibles. Whe- 
ther she would finally have swallowed it 
I am not able to say (and so must leave 
undecided a very interesting anil im- 
portant question in economic ornithol- 
ogy), for just then I remembered a piece 
of banana with which I had been mean- 
ing to tempt her. Of this she tasted at 
once, and, as I thought, found it good ; 
for she transfixed it with her bill, and, 
quitting her seat, carried it away and 
deposited it on a branch. But instead 
vol. lx. — xo. 359. 23 
of eating it, as I expected to see her do, 
she fell to fly-catching, while her mate 
promptly appeared, and as soon as op- 
portunity offered took his turn at brood- 
ing. My eyes, meanwhile, had not kept 
the two distinct, and, supposing that 
tire mother had returned, I stepped up 
to offer her another drink, but had no 
sooner filled the spoon than the fellow 
took flight. At this the female came to 
the rescue again, and unhesitatingly en- 
tered the nest. It was a noble reproof, 
I thought ; well deserved, and very 
handsomely administered. “ Oh, you 
cowardly dear,” I fancied her saying, 
“ he ’ll not hurt you. See me, now ! 
I ’m not afraid. He ’s queer, I know ; 
but he means well.” 
I should have mentioned that while 
the squirrel was barking she uttered 
some very pretty sotto voce notes of two 
kinds, — one like what I have often 
heard, and one entirely novel. 
A man ought to have lived with such 
a creature, year in and out, and seen it 
under every variety of mood and condi- 
tion, before imagining himself possessed 
of its entire vocabulary. For who doubts 
that birds, also, have their more sacred 
and intimate feelings, their esoteric doc- 
trines and experiences, which are not 
proclaimed upon the tree-top, but spoken 
under breath, in all but inaudible twit- 
ters ? Certainly this pet of mine on 
sundry occasions whispered into my ear 
things which I had never heard before, 
and as to the purport of which, in my 
ignorance of the vireonian tongue, I 
could only conjecture. For my own part, 
I am through with thinking that I have 
mastered all the notes of any bird, even 
the commonest. 
I wondered, by the bye, whether my 
speech was as unintelligible to the green- 
let as hers was to me. I trust, at all 
events, that she divined a meaning in 
the tones, however she may have missed 
the words ; for I never called without 
telling her how much I admired her 
spirit. She was all that a bird ought 
