If volubility in humanity is a protest against eternal silence, the WHITE-EYE must be keenly aware of life's brevity. In the central woods and thickets of Long Island they are very common birds, always ready to interview an intruder — be it man or other animal — and express its opinion freely.
Their characteristic three-ply notes have been indifferently interpreted and it seems to me there is a variation in individual utterances: near Queens, one pair distinctly ordered me — "Go chase-your-self," while others clipt their order into — "Gwan — beat it!"
Size does not intimidate the courageous midgets and their white eyes give them a rather ferocious aspect. I watched one "bawl out" a cow while perched on the bovine's horn. The nest was within two feet of the ground so the Bird and I chased the danger away from the sacred precincts.
The sobriquet of "Politician" is supposed to come from the White-eye's habit of tucking newspaper into their nests but it is more applicable in the sense of loud, voluble talk.
Eastern United States from Nebraska, southern Wisconsin, New York and Connecticut to central Texas and central Florida.