62 THE CONDOR [ VoL. V the trees. Later after most of the other birds are quiet for the night, the vesper- hymn of the russet-backed thrush, from far up the hillside, thrills us to the soul and forms a fitting close for the day. The vireos are cheerful, pleasing little songsters. Two varieties are quite common about Portland, the Cassin, and western warbling. However, one may find three or four nests of the former to every one of the latter. One peculiar difference we have noticed in the nesting of those two birds is that the home of warbling vireo is generally nearer the ground and, of course, is a trifle smaller than that of the Cassin. Three nests found last year were all between four and six feet up, while the Cassin vireo seldom builds less than twelve feet and often as high as twenty feet from the ground. ? While out photographing during the second week of May last year we saw a WARBLING VIRO FOING YOUNG. Cassin vireo tugging at the loase shreds of the bark of a maple tree. We had a pretty good idea for just what a vireo needed bark at that season of the year, and, by judicious watching, we were led down the canyon to where a little basket-like structure was swung gracefully near the top of an aid ,r tree. Along the bank of some little stream in an alder, maple or dog-wood tree is the favorite haunt of this greenlet. The nest in its natural position was too far from the ground to be photo- graphed, so after waiting till the youngsters were about half grown we lowered the limb, to which the nest was attached, to within five feet of the ground, with apparently no ineonvenienec or trouble to the parents. A few minutes after the house-moving the parents were busily feeding the young in their new location.
