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beautiful as the efforts of our most accomplished musicians. 



Although their vocal efforts may not appeal to us, they 

 have two claims to notice that cannot be ignored, — their 

 graceful beauty and their nest-building ability. Slim, 

 graceful, with a soft blending of blue-gray, black and white, 

 they create an impression that, coupled with their agility, 

 matching that of the Chickadee, calls forth our admiration. 



I have said that the nest of our hummingbird is one of 

 the most beautiful bird creations. The Blue-gray Gnat- 

 catcher nest is almost a perfect reproduction of the hummer- 

 nest but on a much larger scale. While the nest of the 

 hummingbird is small even in proportion to its maker, that 

 of the gnatcatcher is rather large for the size of the bird; 

 that is, the outside of the nest, the whole bulk of it, is large ; 

 but the walls are very thick so that the little, very deeply- 

 cupped interior is hardly big enough to accomodate the lit- 

 tle bird and the four or five beautiful, white, brown-specked 

 eggs that she lays. 



While you may see gnatcatchers feeding on the lower 

 limbs of trees or among the underbrush, they like high ele- 

 vations and it is usually high up in the trees, on horizontal 

 branches, that the exquisite moss-covered homes are placed. 



Wood Pewee. 



Belonging to an entirely different family, but still build- 

 ing the same tjq^e of moss-adorned nest, is the Wood Pewee. 

 These are among the commonest of the flycatchers ; they are 

 called pewees because of the song they sing so often during 

 the summer months, — a very clearly whistled "pee-ah-wee; 

 (short pause) peeeee-wee." 



Nearly every small piece of woods has its pewees and 

 often we find them in orchards. Each bird has a favorite 

 perch or two,— dead twigs that give them a good view of 

 the surrounding territory. They perch on these for hours at 

 a time, occasionally dashing out after a luckless miller or 

 bee that happens to i3ass within sight of their keen eyes; 



