86 



THE OOLOGIST 



uttering a short note similar to that of the 

 Wood Pewee. Its appeurunee is such as 

 to readily coutbuTid it with the two or three 

 conimoner species, unless a close compari- 

 son is made. 



Nest and Eggs of the Blue -gray 

 Gnatcatcher.* 



^pillS little sylph of the woodland wau- 

 <lers southwardly across the continent, 

 on the Pacific coast reaching northward to 

 latitude 42'^, on the Atlantic slope to south- [ 

 ern New England, and in the interior north- 

 ward to Iowa and central Michigan ; south- 

 ward it ranges to Central Ainerica and the 

 West Indies, breeding throughout all this 

 area. Reaching the Middle States rather 

 early in the season it quickly mates and se- 

 lects a site for its exquisite liome. This is 

 usually among the twigs on a horizontal 

 branch of a forest tree, from ten to sixty 

 feet above the ground, — preferably the lat- 

 ter height. The nest-building is begun in 

 Texas about April 10 ; in the Ohio valley 

 early in May. In West V'irginia, where 

 they were abundant, 1 found them working 

 at it on May 8, both parents seeming very 

 busy'; in Michigan, eggs are taken about 

 June 10. 



The nest is very elaborately constrncted, 

 with thick, warm walls of soft materials, 

 which, although slight and perishable, like 

 very fine, wiry grass, husks of buds, stems 

 of old leaves, withered blossoms, down from 

 milk-weed pods and the stalks of ferns, 

 are strong and elastic. It is two inches or 

 more deep, and the top nan-ower than the 

 base, as though the rim had been "puck- 

 ered to prevent the eggs being rocked out 

 by some too-rude breeze." The outside is 

 artfully made to reseml)le tlie limb upon 

 which the nest is saddled, and so guard a- 

 gaiust observation, by being coated with 

 yellow, greeu and gray wood-lichens, firm- 

 ly pressed into the walls and further kept 

 in place by a netrwork of gossamer. The 



lining is of yellow and white plant-down, 

 lichens "and horse-hair, often the last alone, 

 or sometimes downy feathers, the quills of 

 which are skiliully thrust into the wall of 

 the nest, so that only the soft tips can be 

 felt. Being no lai-ger than a tea-cup, and 

 looking precisely like a scar on the limb, 

 this nest is not an easy one to find ; but its 

 perfection costs the birds a full week of la- 

 bor. The eggs are four to six in number, 

 shortly oval in form, somewhat pointed ; 

 white in color, spotted and blotched with 

 varying and blending shades of reddish 

 brown, lilac and slate. The egg varies 

 greatly in the amount of speckling, which, 

 however, ispretty evenly distributed. Blown 

 specimens are frequently faint bluish- or 

 greenish-white. Their average dimensions 

 are .58 by .48. These Flycatchers are said 

 to sil fourteen days, but do not rear more 

 than one brood each season if their nest is 

 undisturbed. Mr. Ragsdale notes that half 

 the nests lie has met with in Cooke Coun- 

 ty, Texas, where the bird is abundant, are 

 destroyed before completion, most of them 

 being totally obliterated. He attributes this 

 to the battles which take j)lace between the 

 PMycatchers and some intrusive Cow-bird, 

 in the coui-se of which the fragile structure 

 is demolished. It is certain that this nest 

 is a favorite hospice tor the Cow-bird's egg. 



*Ingersoll's "Nests ami Eggs of A 

 I'.ir.ls," Part IL, p. 41. 



merican 



A srNUL'LAK oological fact came to our 

 notice some years ago, which deserves to 

 be recorded among those occurrences which 

 collectors are now and then brought into 

 contact with, but find difticult to account 

 for. In the steep bank of a gully east of 

 Utica. we found a hole — large enough to be 

 a Kingfisher's. After due labor, the nest 

 proper was reached, and an egg of the al- 

 cyov taken out. The next time, instead of 

 a Kingfisher's egg, two or three of Bank 

 Swallow's were removed, and when the nest 

 was entirely emptied, five eggs each of the 

 two above species were counted, all lying 

 together in the same nest. The birds were 

 not in si'rht. 



