THE BL UE- GRA V G.VA T- CA TCHER. 5 8 1 



darker triangular spots lower down, and the streaks on the 

 sides being almost dark brown; wing-coverts, slightly 

 whitened; upper mandible brown; lower yellow. 



THE BLUE-GRAY GNAT-CATCHER. 



Occasionally, in Northern Ohio, the nervous flitting 

 of the Blue-gray Gnat-catcher i^Polioptila ccertdea) would 

 attract me. This is about the northern boundary of its 

 habitat, but it extends westward to the Pacific, and is strictly 

 migratory. Only 4.50 long, and much of this lineal dimen- 

 sion consisting of the tail, it is but 6.00 in extent. The 

 color is bluish-gray above and bluish-white below; head 

 bluest, wath black front and eye-brows in the male; wings 

 brownish-black, with secondaries near the body edged with 

 white; the tail, which is longer than the body and a little 

 rounded, black; the exterior feathers white nearly to the 

 base, and the next two tipped with white; the very slender 

 bill, overhanging and notched at the tip, broad and bristled at 

 base, and so resembling that of the Flycatcher; legs long, 

 slender and black. Warbler, Titmouse and Flycatcher in 

 movement, it is in the main a Warbler in structure; its 

 diminutive body, however, and long rounded tail giving 

 it a rather Tom-tit appearance; its plain drab-like colors 

 also remind one of the Titmice. Its common note, isee,tsee, 

 tsee, is much like that of the Kinglet, but its soft, sweet 

 warble is peculiar to itself. It is one of the subdued and 

 tender vocalists of our woodlands. 



The most striking feature of this little favorite is its ele- 

 gantly artistic nest. Placed on a limb, or in the top of a 

 tree, anywhere from ten to fifty feet from the ground, it is 

 closely felted together of the softest materials of the forest — 

 bud-scales, dried blossoms, and the delicate cottony sub- 

 stance which envelops the unfolding fronds of ferns, with 



