Suddenly he bursts into a charming, simple
little song, as if the introspection had given him reason for real joy. All
these vocal accomplishments suggest the chat at once; but the minute your
intrusion is discovered the sharp scolding, that is fairly screamed at you
from an enraged little throat, leaves no possible shadow of a doubt as to the
bird you have disturbed. It has the most emphatic call and song to be heard in
the woods; it snaps its words off very short. "Chick-a-rer chick" is its usual
call-note, jerked out with great spitefulness.
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.
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