She never can say no,
And so the nasty Cowbird
Drops an egg among her row
Of neat white eggs. Behold her then,
The Red-eyed Vireo!
—Faith C. Lee, in Bird-Lore.
THREE LISPERS AND A VENTRILOQUIST
“When the trees are putting on their best and greenest leaves, many new sounds mingle with the hum of insects among the branches. You pause and look up in the confusing mass of fluttering green and sunbeams to find, if possible, the origin of these sounds.
“Many feathered shapes are fluttering about, some flying after the manner of birds, while others flit and move in the irregular fashion of butterflies, while the notes they utter, instead of being full-throated, have a sort of childish lisp.
“These birds belong to the tribe of Warblers; a few do really warble, but for the majority the Lispers would be a more appropriate title. Listen! there comes a little call now, as if the bird had kept his beak half closed, ‘Sweet-sweetie-sweazy!’ and a bird of light build and no larger than a Chippy flits backward from the twig where he was perching and alights on one below, following in his flight one of the insects of which he is a valiant destroyer, as he belongs really to both the order of Tree Trappers and Sky Sweepers.