1144 



REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



lined with vegetable down, feathers and fine grass; deep. Eggs, 4-5; 

 greenish or bluish-white, spotted and marked with different shades 

 of brown; .57 by .44. 



The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is a summer resident; very abundant 

 southward, ' and in some localities is rare or wanting. They are very 

 irregular in their migrations. Some years they appear in southern 

 Indiana late in March, and others, not until a month later. Some 

 seasons, in one locality, they appear very early, and in others, quite 

 late; 1893 and 1896 were years of early migration in southern Indiana, 



Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. .Natural size. 



and 1897 was a medium season. At Greencastle they only arrived one 

 other year as late as they did in 1896, and the earliest is in 1897, 

 which is also the earliest record for the State for that year. It would 

 seem they present an instance of migration per saltum; indeed, it is 

 probable that all migration is by leaps, the later comers passing ahead 

 and becoming the van, and then, in turn, being passed by the others; 

 and that here we have a good illustration of it. Early and late dates 

 of first appearance at Greensburg are, March 27, 1896, April 15, 1894; 

 Bicknell, March 28, 1897, April 10, 1894; Brookville, March 31, 1884, 

 April 29, 1895; Greencastle, April 6, 1893, April 20, 1895, 1896; 

 Lafayette, April 4, 1897, April 29, 1893; Sedan, April 16, 1896, May 

 1, 1894; Chicago, 111., April 15, 1896, May 4, 1894, 1895; Petersburg, 

 Mich., April 20, 1889, May 5, 1897. They are common, at least, north 

 to Eichmond (A. M. Hadley), Anderson (C. P. Smith), Wabash (W. 

 0. Wallace), Tippecanoe (L. A. and C. P. Test), and in Vermillion 



