314 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
When our Vireo sings slow enough to be distinctly 
heard, the following sweetly warbled phrases, variously 
transposed and tuned, may often be caught by the atten- 
tive listener : ’tshode pewee peeai musik 7 du 7 du ’du, 
7 tshoove 7 here 7 here , hear hire, ’k’ing Wit shard, 7 p’shegru 
7 tshevu , ’tsheevoo 7 tshuvee peeait ’phroi. The whole de- 
livered almost without any sensible interval, with earnest 
animation, in a pathetic, tender, and pleasing strain, well 
calculated to produce calm and thoughtful reflection in 
the sensitive mind. Yet while this heavenly reverie 
strikes on the human ear with such peculiar effect, the 
humble musician himself seems but little concerned ; 
for all the while, perhaps, that this flowing chorus enchants 
the hearer, he is casually hopping from spray to spray 
in quest of his active or crawling prey, and if a cessa- 
tion occurs in his almost untiring lay, it is occasioned 
by the caterpillar or fly he has just fortunately captured. 
So unaffected are these delightful efforts of instinct, and 
so unconscious is the performer, apparently, of this pleas- 
ing faculty bestowed upon him by nature, that he may 
truly be considered, as a messenger of harmony to man 
alone , appointed by the fiat of Creative power. Wanton- 
ly to destroy these delightful aids to sentimental happi- 
ness ought therefore to be viewed, not only as an act of 
barbarity, but almost as a sacrilege ! 
The Red-Eye, in the month of May, builds a small, neat, 
pensile nest, suspended between the forked and depending 
twigs of some young and slender forest tree.^ It is firmly 
attached by the whole of the 2 upper edges, and fixed at 
a height of from 4 or 5 to 20 feet from the ground. It 
is commenced by narrow loops of tenaceous materials 
passed from twig to twig, which are successively increas- 
* These nests are chiefly made in the maple, beech, birch, oak, hornbeam, and tree 
cornel,) Cornus florida, L.) 
