File:Birds and nature (1906) (14565601260).jpg

Identifier: birdsnature31906chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ade trees which they may frequent.Probably one of the most valuable oftheir services to man is their carefulsearch for insects in buds and on leaves.The majority of the insects which theycapture are not in motion but occasion-ally they are caught while on the wing.Because of the latter habit, the are fre-quently called Red-eyed Flycatchers. The homes of these vireos are neatpensile nests. It is said that the femalesperform most of the work in the build-ing of the nests, though they are assistedby their mates who bring materials.The appearance of the nests varies quitea great deal. The walls are made ofwoven fine strips of bark, fibrous vege-table substances and other materials.Sometimes the exterior is left rough andunfinished in appearance, while in otherinstances the exterior surfaces are beau-tifully decorated with the webs ofspiders and caterpillars and with lightcolored vegetable hairs. When thuscompleted, the nests bear a very finelyfinished appearance. The nests are very 14 w 1
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■ROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES 22 RED-EYED VIREO. (Vireo olivaceus).fry Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO strong, for the materials are firmly meaning to be green. Mr. Dawson woven and they are suspended from suggests: One cannot be sure whether forked twigs from four to fifty feet it was the birds color, or good cheer, above the ground. or characteristic note, which led Vieillot The generic name, Vireo, of this in 1807 to select for this group the name beautiful bird is an interesting and ap- Vireo, a Latin word meaning, I am^ propriate name. It is a Latin word green, or flourishing. EVENING IN THE SALT MEADOWS Now, glimmering plumelets of grasses swing slow, By brown-seeded heads of withering hay.And nourishing worts, which your cattle know For the briny tang of each salt-jointed spray. Here the rosemary drowses with leathery leaves.And spikelets of blue, like a spinster on guard; But around her gray form one faintly perceivesThe kindliest sifting and drifting of

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