BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER 361 



cardinals will frequently be found in the same clump of trees. In 

 fact its call note is often the guide to a good 'bird tree'." 



Alexander Sprunt, Jr., writes (MS.) from Okeechobee, Fla.: 

 " Gnatcatchers swarm on some days. The hammocks and canal 

 banks in perfectly open country have hundreds of them, and the 

 characteristic zee-e-e-e note sounds in one's hearing at every stop. 

 I have seen as many as six in one small willow. They frequent the 

 oak and cabbage palm hammocks and the willows, myrtles and 

 other growth typical of the banks of the drainage canals. There 

 might be a stretch of open prairie for miles about such a place, but 

 there they are! It is certainly one of the typical passerine species 

 of this area in mid-winter." 



Beyond our limits, in Guatemala, Alexander F. Skutch (MS.) 

 considers the gnatcatcher an abundant winter bird at middle alti- 

 tudes — from 2,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level — and states that 

 "although the records of its occurrence range from the lowlands to 

 the summit of the Volcan de Agua (12,100 feet), it is not often seen 

 at either extreme; and it seems likely that the birds taken at very 

 high altitudes were migrating rather than settled in their winter 

 home. But I found it fairly common during the winter months in 

 the open woods of pine and oak in the lower portions of the high- 

 lands among the orchards and thickets about the shores of Lake 

 Atitl&n and among the shade trees of the great coffee plantations 

 on the Pacific slope down to about 2,000 feet." While he finds that 

 "the gnatcatchers may at times form small flocks of their own kind," 

 the habits of these tropical visitors seem to conform to the social 

 pattern of the birds that winter within our limits, for they "attach 

 themselves singly to flocks of warblers, the Tennessee warbler in the 

 coffee-growing districts, the Townsend warbler at higher elevations." 

 But he suspects that "when several of the birds flock together, they 

 are females or immature individuals, for the adult males do not seem 

 to get along together." Length of sojourn is indicated by Skutch's 

 "only record which would indicate the date of arrival — one from 

 Huehuetenango for September 11, 1934," at which time he saw 

 several individuals. He also cites Griscom's "extreme dates for the 

 occurrence of the species in Guatemala as September 7 and March 3." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southern Canada to Guatemala. 



Breeding range. — Toward the limits of its range the blue-gray gnat- 

 catcher is rather sporadic in its occurrence, nesting one year and 

 perhaps not appearing again for several years. It has been found 

 breeding north to northern California (Covelo, Baird, and probably 

 Yreka); central Nevada (Kingston Creek and Nyala); northern Utah 



792825—49 24 



