Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 
Wilson thus describes the jealously guarded nest: “This 
bird builds a very neat little nest, often in the figure of an inverted 
cone; it is suspended by the upper end of the two sides, on the 
circular bend of a prickly vine, a species of smilax, that generally 
grows in low thickets. Outwardly it is constructed of various 
light materials, bits of rotten wood, fibres of dry stalks, of weeds, 
pieces of paper (commonly newspapers, an article almost always 
found about its nest, so that some of my friends have given it 
the name of the politician); all these materials are interwoven 
with the silk of the caterpillars, and the inside is lined with fine, 
dry grass and hair.” 
Warbling Vireo 
(Vireo gilvus) Vireo or Greenlet family 
Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English spar- 
row. 
Male and Female — Ashy olive-green above, with head and neck 
ash-colored. Dusky line over the eye. Underneath whitish, 
faintly washed with dull yellow, deepest on sides ; no bars 
on wings. 
Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. 
Migrations — May. Late September or early October. Summer 
resident. 
This musical little bird shows a curious preference for rows 
of trees in the village street or by the roadside, where he can be 
sure of an audience to listen to his rich, continuous warble. 
There is a mellowness about his voice, which rises loud, but not 
altogether cheerfully, above the bird chorus, as if he were a gifted 
but slightly disgruntled contralto. Too inconspicuously dressed, 
and usually too high in the tree-top to be identified without opera- 
glasses, we may easily mistake him by his voice for one of the 
warbler family, which is very closely allied to the vireos. Indeed, 
this warbling vireo seems to be the connecting link between 
them. 
Morning and afternoon, but almost never in the evening, we 
may hear him rippling out song after song as he feeds on insects 
and berries about the garden. But this familiarity lasts only until 
nesting time, for off he goes with his little mate to some unfre- 
179 
