58 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



II. POLIOPTILA 



(A) c^RULEA. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 



(Avery rare or exceptional summer-resident in New England.) 



(a). 4-4J- inches long. "Clear ashy blue, bluer on head; 

 forehead, and line over eye, black (wanting in 9 ) = outer tail 

 feather white." Bill, feet, and rest of the tail, black. Under 

 parts (bluish) white. 



(&). "The nest is placed on a tree, from ten to fifty feet 

 above the ground, and is cup-shaped, firm, but small and neat." 

 An egg in my collection measures •60X'48 of an inch, and is 

 2Mle greenish blue, dotted with reddish-brown and a little 

 obscure lilac. 



(c) (d). The Blue-graj' Gnatcatchers are said to have wan- 

 dered to Massachusetts, but their usual habitat is further to 

 the southward. The}'^ are insectivorous, and dart "about from 

 one part of the tree to another with hanging wings and erected 

 tail, making a feeble chirping, tsee, tsee, no louder than a 

 mouse." (Wilson.) They generally hunt "on the highest 

 branches." Mr. Burroughs says of this bird in ""Wake-Robin : " 

 " Its song is a lisping, chattering, incoherent warble, now 

 faintly reminding one of the goldfinch, now of a miniature cat- 

 bird, then of a tiny yellow-hammer, having much variet}', but 

 no unity, and little cadence." He previously remarks, in his 

 charming sketches, that " in form and manner it seems almost 

 a duplicate of the cat-bird, on a small scale. It mews like a 

 5'oung kitten, erects its tail, flirts, droops its wings, goes through 

 a variety of motions when disturbed by your presence, and^n 

 many ways recalls its dusky prototj'pe." 



§ 4. The ParidSB, or titmice, together with the two next fam- 

 ilies, the nuthatches and creepers, form a natural, plainly col- 

 ored group, and might appropriately be called "tree-gleaners." 

 They all lead an active life, scrambling about among trees in 

 search of insects and their eggs, but never flying far, though 

 partially migrant. The chickadees not unfrequently alight on 

 the ground, and often hang head downwards, but they never 



