58 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
II. POLIOPTILA 
(A) cmrRuLEA. Blue-gray Gaatcatcher. 
(A very rare or exceptional summer-resident in New England.) 
(a). 4-41 inches long. ‘Clear ashy blue, bluer on head ; 
forehead, and line over eye, black (wanting in 9): outer tail 
feather white.” Bill, feet, and rest of the tail, black. Under 
parts (bluish) white. 
(b). “The nest is placed on a tree, from ten to fifty feet 
above the ground, and is cup-shaped, firm, but small and neat.” 
An egg in my collection measures *60°48 of an inch, and is 
pale greenish blue, dotted with reddish-brown and a little 
obscure lilac. 
(c) (d). The Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are said to have wan- 
dered to Massachusetts, but their usual habitat is further to 
the southward. They are insectivorous, and dart ‘about from 
one part of the tree to another with hanging wings and erected 
tail, making a feeble chirping, tsee, tsee, no louder than a 
mouse.” (Wilson.) They generally hunt ‘on the highest 
branches.” Mr. Burroughs says of this bird in ‘‘Wake-Robin :” 
“Tts song is a lisping, chattering, incoherent warble, now 
faintly reminding one of the goldfinch, now of a miniature cat- 
bird, then of a tiny yellow-hammer, having much variety, but 
no unity, and little cadence.” He previously remarks, in his 
charming sketches, that ‘‘in form and manner it seems almost 
a duplicate of the cat-bird, on a small scale. It mews like a 
young kitten, erects its tail, dirts, droops its wings, goes through 
a variety of motions when disturbed by your presence, and in 
many ways recalls its dusky prototype.” 
§4, The Parids, or titmice, together with the two next fam- 
ilies, the nuthatches and creepers, form a natural, plainly col- 
ored group, and might appropriately be called ‘‘ tree-gleaners.” 
They all lead an active life, scrambling about among trees in 
search of insects and their eggs, but never flying far, though 
partially migrant. The chickadees not unfrequently alight on 
the ground, and often hang head downwards, but they never 
