A FEATHERED MIDGET AND ITS NEST. 77 



the balance of .the owner. The tail of the male bird 

 is darker than that of the other sex. When in flight 

 the feathers are spread out, the lateral ones showing 

 pure white from beneath the blue-gray of the others. 



Many other birds were seeking food in the shrubs 

 and trees close by, but I doubt if any succeeded in 

 finding as much as did the tiny gnat-catchers. They 

 were content with small fry, seemingly believing that 

 u many a mickle makes a muckle." No insect of any 

 size escaped their gaze. Gnats, mosquitoes, moths and 

 flies were spied out a dozen, yes fifty, feet away, and 

 with one straight dive and a click of the bill, the days 

 of the insect were ended forever. The birds seldom 

 missed their aim although in one instance one flew 

 full seventy feet and caught a flying form too small 

 for me to see at that distance. The insects preyed 

 upon must have been poor in nutrition or else the 

 gnat-catchers are veritable gourmands, for while I 

 watched them each one caught, on an average, three 

 to the minute, which would be 1,800 for a day of ten 

 hours. . 



The usual alarm note, similar to that of the cat-bird 

 but much softer, was not heard during the hour that 

 the birds were observed. At intervals one would 

 utter a faint chirp or chuckle, as if talking to another. 

 A low pit-ut-ut-e sound was also occasionally made. 

 According to Coues, the gnat-catcher spends days in 

 such incessant activity as that which I noted, "till 

 other impulses are stimulated with the warmth of the 

 advancing season, and the sharp accents of the voice 

 are modulated into sweet and tender song, so low as 

 to be inaudible at any considerable distance, yet so 



