GNATCATCHERS 619 



gleaned from the foliage and branches, or occasionally an insect 

 is taken in the air, or an individual will hover before some 

 limb and take an insect from it. They eat the same general 

 run of small insects and insects' eggs eaten by the Chickadee. 

 They frequent the evergreen woods as a matter of choice. 

 The eggs I have never seen, but they lay at least ten some- 

 times as I have seen a pair of old birds in early August near 

 Fort Kent, accompanied by ten young not long out of the nest 

 and still being fed by the parents. Davie gives the number of 

 eggs as five to nine, states that they are dull whitish or pale 

 buify, faintly speckled with light brown, chiefly at the larger 

 ends, or occasionally nearly immaculate. They are said to 

 measure about 0.55 x 0.45. 



Subfamily POLIOPTIN^. Gnatcatchers. 

 Genus POLIOPTILA Sclater. 



751. Polioptila cocrulea (Linn.). Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 



Plumage of adult male: forehead narrowly bordered by black; wings 

 clove brown, the tertiaries broadly white edged ; outer tail feathers white, 

 grading gradually into the pure black middle ones ; upper parts otherwise 

 plumbeous bluish gray ; below dull grayish white. Plumage of adult female : 

 differs chiefly from male in lacking black border to the forehead. Immature 

 plumage : drab to smoke gray above ; otherwise very similar to female. 

 Wing 2.07 ; tail 2.10 ; culmen 0.41. 



Geog. Dist.— Eastern United States, northward to southern New York and 

 southern New England ; straggling to Massachusetts and Maine ; breeding 

 from the Gulf States to northern Illinois, southern Ontario and New Jersey ; 

 wintering from Florida southward. 



County Records. — Cumberland ; observed at Cape Elizabeth, August 29, 

 1880, (Brown, C. B. P. p. 5) ; observed at Cape Elizabeth, April 18, 1896, 

 (Brown, Auk 13, p. 264). 



This species is a mere casual straggler to Maine. Its habits 

 I must quote entirely from observations of others. A nest and 

 eggs in my collection were sent me by Mr. A. T. Wayne, who 

 took them near Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, May 12, 

 1896. The nest was placed on the horizontal limb of a red 

 oak tree, fifteen feet from the ground and ten feet from the 



