THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 309 



751 Polioptila caerulea (Linnaeus). 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 



Adult male. — Length, 4.25-5.50. Wing, 2.10. Above, bluish-gray, brightest 

 on the head ; a narrow black band across the forehead and back over the eyes ; 

 wings, dull black, edged with gray, the innermost feathers with white ; tail, jet 

 black, the outermost pair of feathers largely white, the next two pairs with 

 white tips, diminishing in extent ; below, white, with a slight grayish-tint. 



Female and young during the first summer and autumn. — Similar, but with- 

 out the black frontlet. 



Nest not unlike a large Hummingbird's nest, made of grasses and vegetable 

 fibers and covered with lichens ; usually placed on a horizontal limb of a tree ; 

 eggs, bluish-white, thickly spotted with brown and rufous, .58 x .45. 



Rare and local summer resident in southern New Jersey. Arrives 

 April 10th to May 1st, departs September 3d. 



The Gnatcatcher is a very rare bird in this State, but two nests have 

 been found, so far as I am aware; one at Bridgeton, by W, L. Baily, 

 the other at Cape May Point, by S. N. Rhoads, May 17th, 1903,^ 

 though Beesley (1857) gives it as a breeder in Cape May county.^ 



The following species have been obtained : 



Princeton; April 28th, 1875. W. E. D. Scott (Princeton Coll.).=' 



Cape May county; April 15th, 1879. Dr. W. L. Abbott (Acad. Nat. 

 Sciences, Phila.). 



Woodbury; May 1st, 1880. Dr. W. L. Abbott, three specimens 

 (Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila.). 



Haddonfield; April 10th, 1882. S. N. Rhoads (Collection W. 

 Stone).* 



Dennisville; May, 1891. C. A. Voelker.* 



Atlantic City; April 16th, 1893. I. N. DeHaven, four specimens* 

 (Coll. Academy of Natural Sciences and I. N. D.). 



Cape May Point; April 11th, 1903. C. J. Pennock.' 



According to Mr. Babson, Mr. Scott has taken other specimens at 

 Princeton, but no nest was ever found there, and although regarded as 

 regular in 1878, by Scott,^ it is not so now. Mr. Chapman mentions a 



* Geology of Cape May. 



- Babson, Birds of Princeton, p. 81. 

 " Cassinia, 1903, p. 75. 



♦ Stone, Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 148. 

 " The Country, 1878. p. 354. 



