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Published Quarterly by the 
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ROOSEVELT ROAD and LAKE SHORE DRIvE, CHICAGO 5, ILL. 
Number 73 March, 1950 
Red-Eyed Vireos in Jackson Park 
By MARGARET Morse NICE 
ONE PLEASANT summer afternoon I sat on a bench on the Wooded Island 
in Jackson park, Chicago, prepared to sketch my favorite catalpa, while I 
listened to the singing of an unmated brown 
thrasher and a red-eyed vireo. A bronzed grackle 
alighted in the nearby pin oak; a minute later 
there was a squawk and grackle was driven to the 
ground with red-eye practically on his back. Red- 
eye sat and sang in the oak, then dashed for 
another grackle that innocently perched there; 
the grackle fled. Red-eye went to a linden but was 
promptly driven out by the thrasher. Red-eye then 
chased off a third grackle, but the fourth had to 
be hit twice before it understood. 
After seeing several more chases of grackles 
and an English sparrow, I noticed two red-eyes 
in the great bur oak 90 feet to the west; twice in 
quick succession one alighted in a particular spot 
some 20 feet above the ground. Study of this place 
with the binoculars from different positions re- 
vealed the nest, admirably protected above and 
below by oak leaves. 
A Greatly delighted with my discovery, I watched 
fotos Se DA under the oak for an hour. Periods on the nest 
lasted from half a minute to 10 minutes; periods off the same. Sometimes 
the male accompanied his mate back to the nest. He sang most of the time 
as well as chasing grackles 16 times in 80 minutes. 
A male and female cowbird walked about on the grass. I wondered what 
hosts they could find besides these vireos, cardinals, 
and the one pair of wood pewees. 
The next morning, June 19, 1949, I arrived early 
— 6:10 central standard time. Such lovely sights and 
sounds — the magnificent catalpas in bloom, the 
snowy mock-orange, the gay red and orange flowers 
of the nine-barks. Four mourning doves were cooing 
and a wood pewee was singing, while little rabbits 
browsed unafraid. 
The female red-eye was incubating in earnest, her longest session on 
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