BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER 357 



never imagined that any bird was capable of producing notes so soft and so low, 

 yet each one given with such distinctness that the ear could catch every part of 

 the wondrous and complicated song. I watched him for some time, but he never 

 ceased singing, save when he sprung into the air to catch some insect. 



Other observers and writers, however, do not seem impressed by its 

 beauty. F. H. Allen writes (MS.) that the song of this species is 

 "scrappy, formless, leisurely, and faint, and is delivered somewhat 

 in the manner of a Vireo while the bird flits about among the branches. 

 [Hel found the phrase pirrooeet occurring frequently in it." A. A. 

 Saunders (MS.) regrets that he cannot describe the song in detail, 

 since his collection of sound records "contains only a few fragments 

 from a single bird. The song is long continued, of greatly varied 

 rapid notes and trills, on a high pitch, and of a squeeky or nasal 

 quality. It is more curious than beautiful." 



Wells W. Cooke (1914) cited a unique variation when "one bird was 

 heard to give a long, and beautiful and perfect trill" ; and A. L. Pickens, 

 writing (MS.) from Paducah, Ky., strikes a new note when he describes 

 "one fact about the blue-gray gnatcatcher most observers appear to 

 have missed. It has decided powers of mimicry. One of its most 

 amusing performances is the apparent imitation, in its almost whisper- 

 ing tones, of a flock of crows, or else blue jays." He says that the 

 first name he knew for this species was "Little Mockingbird." 



The song period commences with the reanimation of the gnat- 

 catchers about mid-March and lasts only until eggs are laid and 

 incubation is started in mid-April. Birds heard singing later than 

 that in the far South may be only the late nesters or those that have 

 lost their first nests and are preparing to try again. Like many other 

 song birds, the gnatcatcher has a mild revival of ardor in the fall, 

 and I have a few times heard its song in October. A. F. Skutch 

 mentions (MS.) having heard one "sing a sweet little medley in an 

 undertone" in January in Guatemala. 



The call note of the gnatcatcher is far better known, because it is 

 more easily heard, than the song. I find it variously described by 

 many observers and writers, most of whom use combinations of the 

 syllable zee in attempting to "phonotype" it. Others liken it to 

 "the twang of a banjo string"; and "a nasal twee, suggestive of the 

 catbird's mew but thinner, shorter and fainter." Any or all of these 

 may serve as aids to identification for one who hears the sound for the 

 first time, but to my ear it possesses a quality that defies description 

 in stereotyped terms. It is more long-drawn than a chirp; not as 

 clear as (more husky or "fuzzy" than) a whistle; definitely not a 

 trill — and there I have compared it negatively with the more usual 

 small-bird sounds, and still I have not described it. However, the 



