THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 309 



751 Polioptila caerulea (Linnaeus). 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 



Adult male. Length, 4.25-5.50. Wing, 2.10. Above, bluish-gray, brightest 

 on the head ; a narrow black band across the forehead and back over the eyes ; 

 wings, dull black, edged with gray, the innermost feathers with white ; tail, jet 

 black, the outermost pair of feathers largely white, the next two pairs with 

 white tips, diminishing in extent ; below, white, with a slight grayish-tint. 



Female and young during the first summer and autumn. Similar, but with- 

 out the black frontlet. 



Nest not unlike a large Hummingbird's nest, made of grasses and vegetable 

 fibers and covered with lichens ; usually placed on a horizontal limb of a tree ; 

 eggs, bluish-white, thickly spotted with brown and rufous, .58 x .45. 



Rare and local summer resident in southern New Jersey. Arrives 

 April 10th to May 1st, departs September 3d. 



The Gnatcatcher is a very rare bird in this State, but two nests have 

 been found, so far as I am aware; one at Bridgeton, by W. L. Baily, 

 the other at Cape May Point, by S. N. Rhoads, May 17th, 1903, 3 

 though Beesley (1857) gives it as a breeder in Cape May county. 1 



The following species have been obtained : 



Princeton; April 28th, 1875. W. E. D. Scott (Princeton Coll.). 2 



Cape May county; April 15th, 1879. Dr. W. L. Abbott (Acad. Nat. 

 Sciences, Phila.). 



Woodbury; May 1st, 1880. Dr. W. L. Abbott, three specimens 

 (Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila.). 



Haddonfield; April 10th, 1882. S. N. Rhoads (Collection W. 

 Stone). 4 



Dennisville; May, 1891. C. A. Voelker. 4 



Atlantic City; April 16th, 1893. I. N. DeHaven, four specimens 4 

 (Coll. Academy of Natural Sciences and I. N. D.). 



Cape May Point; April llth, 1903. C. J. Pennock. 3 



According to Mr. Babson, Mr. Scott has taken other specimens at 

 Princeton, but no nest was ever found there, and although regarded as 

 regular in 1878, by Scott, 5 it is not so now. Mr. Chapman mentions a 



1 Geology of Cape May. 



2 Babson, Birds of Princeton, p. 81. 



3 Cassinia, 1903, p. 75. 



4 Stone, Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 148. 



5 The Country, 1878, p. 354. 



