THE BL UE- GRA T GNA TCA TCHER. 4 1 



Ornithologie " (1856, p. 33, PL I, Fig. 8), and also in his large 

 work on the eggs of the birds of Europe, from one taken in 

 Labrador. " The plate indicates a rather roundish e^'g^ though 

 the two specimens figured differ noticeably in size and shape ; 

 they are spoken of in the text as ' niedliche kleine Eierchen mit 

 lehmgelben Fleckchen auf weissen Grunde,' and compared 

 with those of other species illustrated on the same plate." 



The periods mentioned by various authors when newly-fledged 

 young have been seen would lead to the inference that more 

 than one brood is raised annually. 



'-'- Regulus ciivieri" described by Audubon from a specimen 

 taken near the banks of the Schuylkill River, has remained 

 unknown to ornithologists ever since, and is surmised to be not 

 difterent from the gold-crest. 



23. THE BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER. 

 POLIOPTILA C.^RULEA Sclater. 



This little sylph of the woodland wanders southwardly across 

 the continent^ on the Pacific coast reaching northward to lati- 

 tude 43°, on the Atlantic slope to southern New England, 

 and in the interior northward to Iowa and central Michigan ; 

 southward it ranges to Central America and the West Indies, 

 breeding throughout all this area. Reaching the Middle States 

 rather early in the season it quickly mates and selects a site for 

 its exquisite home. This is usually among the twigs on a hori- 

 zontal branch of a forest tree, from ten to sixty feet above the 

 ground, — preferably the latter height. The nest-building is be- 

 gun in Texas about April 10 ; in the Ohio valley early in May. 

 In West Virginia, where they were abundant, I 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 constructed, 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 narrower than the base, as though the rim had been 



