THE BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER. 237 
piles of brush, to search for insects or cobwebs. The little blue bundle of busi- 
ness passes unmindful within a dozen feet of you, or if recalled to conscious- 
ness by some stirring appreliension, pauses to wag its long tail through an are of 
a hundred and eighty degrees, or else to shake it up and down through almost 
as great a compass. “Biz, biz, bis,’ the midget cries, and if you can only 
mark the note well before the bird is lost again in the dense foliage of the tree- 
tops, to which it soon returns, you have grasped a thread of recognition which 
is always bound tightly to this little brother of the air. 
Sometimes the note is doubled so that the bird seems to say, Bawbee, 
bawbee, but in any case there is a sort of buzzing resonance about it which is 
distinctive. The pearly fay has also a dainty rambling song full of ethereal 
phrases and delicate suggestiveness. In one passage it bears a marked resem- 
blance to the “Szwveet-to-cat” note of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. One must, 
however, get very near to the singer in order to catch anything worth while, 
for the bird sings in the tiniest of voices. 
The nest of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is, after the Hummingbird’s, the 
daintiest in the woods. It is placed at any height from a dozen or fifteen feet 
to the limit of the trees. That seen in the illustration was taken from an elm 
tree at a height of sixty feet, and it is typical as to position, in showing the 
protecting branch above. It would be very difficult to find nests at these 
heights were it not for the fact that the birds fly freely and directly to the 
chosen spot, and occasionally betray their presence by buzzing while the nest 
is a-making. Both birds work with unflagging industry, and prolong their 
labors into the heated hours of each day. It is a rebuke to a sluggard to see 
one dashing up to a tree and whirling around in the nest that is to be, and lay- 
ing off the cobwebs at such a furious rate. The walls of the nest are built up 
so high that only the tail of the sitting bird protrudes, looking curiously like a 
handle to this lichen-covered cup. 
As soon as the young Gnatcatchers are able to make their wants known 
they repeat incessantly the bis biz notes of the parents, and thus the strenuous 
life of these most earnest little birds is begun at an early age. 
