Peering at you through the green undergrowth with an eye
that seems especially conspicuous because of its encircling white rim, it is
at least as sociable and cheerful as any member of its family, and Mr.
Bradford Torrey credits it with "winning tameness." "Wood-bird as it is," he
says, "it will sometimes permit the greatest familiarities. Two birds I have
seen, which allowed themselves to be stroked in the freest manner, while
sitting on the eggs, and which ate from my hand as readily as any pet canary."
The solitary vireo also builds a pensile nest, swung from the crotch of a
branch, not so high from the ground as the yellow-throated vireos nor so
exquisitely finished, but still a beautiful little structure of pine-needles,
plant-fibre, dry leaves, and twigs, all lichen-lined and bound and rebound
with coarse spiders' webs.
The distinguishing quality of this vireo's celebrated song is its tenderness:
a pure, serene uplifting of its loving, trustful nature that seems inspired by
a fine spirituality.
RED-EYED VIREO (Vireo olivaceus) Vireo or Greenlet family
Called also: THE PREACHER
Length -- 5.75 to 6.25 inches. A fraction smaller than the
English sparrow.
Male and Female -- Upper parts light olive-green; well-defined
slaty-gray cap, with black marginal line, below which, and
forming an exaggerated eyebrow, is a line of white.
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