Red-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Greenlet, and Red-eyed Fly-catcher are the
names variously applied to this pretty representative of his family, of
which there are about fifty species. The Red-eye is an inhabitant of
Central America and Mexico, its northern limit being the lower Rio
Grande valley in Texas.
The exquisite little creature is tinted even more delicately than the
Wax-wing, but with much the same glossy look and elegant air. The
ruby-tinted eye, and the conspicuous white line above it, with its
border, are good characteristics by which to distinguish it from its
relatives.
The Red-eyed Vireo is found alike in the shade trees of lawns, in
orchards or woodlands, and is especially fond of sycamore groves along
streams. The male is a tireless songster, and even at noon-tide of a
sultry summer-day, when all other warblers are silent, his monotonous
song will be heard. _He-ha-wha_, or _he, ha, whip_, in rising
inflection, and _he, ha, whee_, in falling cadence. He has also a
_chip_, a chatter like a miniature of the Oriole's scold, heard only in
the season of courtship, and a peculiarly characteristic querulous note
which, like others, can not be described with accuracy.
"The Preacher," a name which Wilson Flagg has given this Vireo, exactly
reflects the character of the bird and its song. "His style of preaching
is not declamation," says the writer. "Though constantly talking, he
takes the part of a deliberate orator who explains his subject in a few
words and then makes a pause for his hearers to reflect upon it. We
might suppose him to be repeating moderately, with a pause between each
sentence, 'You see it--You know it--Do you hear me?--Do you believe
it?' All these strains are delivered with a rising inflection at the
close, and with a pause, as if waiting for an answer."
From morning till night this cheery bird sings as he works, from May to
September. "His tender and pathetic utterances," says Brewer, "are in
striking contrast to the apparent indifference or unconsciousness of the
little vocalist who, while thus delighting the ear of the listener,
seems to be all the while bent on procuring its daily food, which it
pursues with unabated ardor."
As noxious and destructive insects constitute the Vireo's chief food he
may properly be classed among the beneficent birds. Seeking for these is
his constant occupation, as he hops along a branch, now peering into
some crevice of the bark or nook among the foliage, ever uttering his
pretty song during the interval between swallowing the last worm and
finding the next.
The nest of the Red-eye is built in a horizontal branch of a tree,
usually in a small sapling that responds to all the caprices of the
wind, thus acting as a cradle for the little ones within. The nest is
cup-like in shape, and always dependent from small twigs, around which
its upper edges are firmly bound, with a canopy of leaves overhead. It
is woven of a variety of materials, fine strips of bark, fibres of
vegetables, and webs of spiders and caterpillars. It is said that two
nests of the same species are rarely found alike. Some are built of
paper fibres, and bits of hornets' nests, and another may be a perfect
collection of scraps of all sorts.
The eggs are three or four, white with a few black or umber specks about
the larger end.
It was in the nest of the Red-eyed Vireo that Hamilton Gibson found
twisted a bit of newspaper, whose single legible sentence read: "* * *
have in view the will of God."*