BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER 345 



and, between snatches at insects too small for me to see even at that 

 short distance, spent several minutes looking me over. 



It was upon the foundation laid in those few minutes that I have 

 built whatever else I may have learned about the gnatcatcher. In 

 the course of writing these pages, the memory of that first meeting 

 has come back to me many times, almost with the clarity of a visual 

 picture, and I feel that I am telling of the later adventures of one 

 little bird rather than of the habits of its myriad kin. 



The habitat of the blue-gray gnatcatcher evidently varies materially 

 in different parts of its range. In the far South, where it is resident, 

 it is common and widely distributed in the nesting season, occurring 

 regularly even in the residential (wooded) sections of the cities and 

 towns, as well as in all forested areas, wooded swamps, pine lands 

 with an undergrowth of scrub oak, pecan and citrus groves — in fact, 

 everywhere where there are trees suitable for nest sites. Farther 

 north, it is characterized as being a bird of the watercourses and the 

 timbered swamps, spending most of its time in the tops of the tallest 

 trees. An interesting variation is noted from the "great open spaces" 

 of Kansas, where N. S. Goss (1891) wrote of its being "as much at 

 home in the shrubby bushes on the hillsides, or the mesquite growths 

 on the plains, as within the treetops of the heavily-timbered bottom 

 lands." 



Spring. — A few years ago it would have taken a whole paragraph 

 to describe the spring arrival of the blue-gray gnatcatcher on its 

 breeding grounds, for its movement from winter quarters in the 

 Southern United States and the Tropics differs from the familiar 

 wavelike rush of the warblers. Today we need but a single word of 

 the military parlance that has become part of our every-day speech: 

 Infiltration. Yesterday, the gnatcatchers were not here; today, they 

 are; and we are always a bit surprised when we discover them. Early 

 in March they are on the move from southern Florida; by the last of 

 the month they are halfway on their course across the country; and 

 mid-April finds them at the northern limits of their normal breeding 

 range. 



Courtship. — For a week or two after their arrival, they are still 

 silent and retiring in habit; then suddenly they all seem to come to 

 life and are ready to resume that all-absorbing function of all living 

 things — reproduction. 



In common with many of the other small birds, the gnatcatcher 

 seems to have no well-marked courtship ritual. We note the un- 

 restrained animation of the male birds, see their frequent bloodless 

 combats, hear their ceaseless singing and chattering — then, after a 

 surprisingly short interval, we find that mates have been selected and 

 the serious business of nest-building is under way. 



792825 — i9 23 



