BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER 359 



the Gnatcatchers were frantic and darted wildly at him, though so far as I could 

 see neither actually struck him. Unperturbed, the Jay * * * grasped an 

 egg in its beak and flew to a limb some twenty feet from the nest. I watched 

 three trips to the nest, one egg being taken each time. I am inclined to believe 

 that the Jay did not take all the eggs, for usually the nest is pulled apart after 

 the last egg is eaten. And on the third visit the robber appeared annoyed with 

 the continued attacking of the owners and flew with the egg to a tree some dis- 

 tance away before stopping to eat it. He did not return to the nest * * *. 



Fall. — In the northern part of its breeding range the gnatcatcher is 

 one of the first species to withdraw from its summer home, and mid- 

 August often sees the last of them there. Farther south they linger 

 much later, temporarily joining the wandering groups of small wood- 

 land birds headed by the chickadees and titmice. 



In northern Florida and southern Georgia and Alabama, where the 

 gnatcatcher is resident, there is a gradual increase in numbers in fall as 

 birds from the northward pass through, then an equally gradual sub- 

 sidence until the small winter population becomes stabilized. It is all 

 so quietly and unobtrusively done that, unless a constant observer 

 actually records numbers of birds seen on each trip afield, he is not 

 likely to realize until late in the season what has taken place before his 

 eyes. October is the time of greatest abundance, and by mid-Novem- 

 ber only a few gnatcatchers remain. 



In southern Florida, where the gnatcatcher is not normally present 

 in summer, its fall arrival is, of course, noticeable if not conspicuous. 

 L. A. Stimson writes (MS.) from Miami: "In fall its migration into 

 this area is in an increasing crescendo over a short period [leading up to 

 its extreme abundance in winter]. Its first appearance will be made 

 by one or a very few individuals, and a week later it will be common." 



From the Southern United States, the gnatcatcher's progress to its 

 tropical wintering grounds is presumably by way of the land masses 

 and not by direct flight across the Gulf of Mexico, for I have never 

 found a gnatcatcher among the many specimens of known trans-Gulf 

 migrant species killed by striking the lighthouse at Pensacola, Fla., 

 nor can I find a record of any having been killed at any other of the 

 Gulf-coast lights. 



Winter. — The blue-gray gnatcatcher's winter home in the United 

 States embraces the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia, all 

 of Florida, and a strip of the Gulf coast from northern Florida to Texas. 

 In the northern part of this area it is uncommon to rare, but it becomes 

 common in extreme southern Louisiana and is abundant in southern 

 Florida and southern Texas. 



Arthur T. Wayne (1910) wrote of it in the Charleston, S. C, 

 region: "The birds are sometimes very hard to detect during the winter, 

 and at that season frequent the interior of large swamps where they 



