The Red-eyed Vireo 
THE RED-EYED VIREO 
Almost everywhere in the Eastern United 
States and Canada, the red-eyed vireo is the 
most common member of his family. The 
only individual touch to his costume that helps 
to distinguish him is a gray cap edged with a 
black line which runs parallel to his conspicuous 
white eyebrow. He wears a dull olive coat and 
a white vest. But listen to the Preacher ! You 
have no need to meet him face to face in order 
to know him: “You see it — you know it — do you 
hear me? — do you believe it?” he propounds inces- 
santly through the long summer days, even after 
most other birds are silent. Y ou cannot mistake 
his voice. With a rising inflection at the end of 
each short, jerky sentence, he asks a question 
very distinctly and sweetly, then pauses an 
instant as if waiting for a reply — an unusually 
courteous orator. His monotonous monologue, 
repeated over and over again, comes to us from 
the elms and maples in the village street, the 
orchard and woodland, where he keeps steadily 
and deliberately at work. Some boys say they 
can whittle better if they whistle. Vireos 
«eem to hunt more thoroughly if they sing. 
Like the rest of his kin, the red-eyed vireo is 
quite tame. A little girl I know actually stroked 
the pretty head of a mother bird as she sat 
brooding in her exquisite nest, and a week later 
