American Gnatcatchers 



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the fact that it is the only form that has extended its range into the New 

 World, the subspecies now occurring in the Commander Islands and western 

 Alaska, where Osgood found it with young; it is about five inches long, 

 olive-green above, and white tinged with yellowish below, while there is a 

 broad whitish line over the eye and two narrow whitish wing-bars. 



Wren-Warblers. The final group that space will admit of mention is that 

 of the Wren- Warblers (Prinia), of which there are nearly a dozen and a half 

 species ranging from South Africa through the Indian peninsula to Java and 

 Ceylon. They are brownish or greenish little Wren-like birds, frequenting 

 swamps, banks of rivers, low, inundated grassy plains, etc., and constructing 

 very neat oval or purse-shaped nests, with the entrance on one side near the top. 



American Gnatcatchers. The propriety of placing the American Gnatcatchers 

 (Polioptila) with this family has been seriously questioned, some preferring 

 to refer them to the Flycatchers (Muscicapida), and others to the Mockingbirds 

 (Mimidce} ; but it seems, as Mr. Ridgway points out, that they must either be 

 made a subfamily of the Sylviida or given full family rank. They are small 

 Flycatcher-like birds, about five inches long, with a slender depressed bill, large 

 wholly exposed nostrils and well-developed rictal bristles, the wings being rather 

 short and rounded and the tarsus long and slender. The coloration is plain 

 gray or bluish gray above and white or pale gray beneath, the tail being black 

 with the outer feathers more or less white-edged; the females are duller in color 

 but otherwise nearly identical with the males. There are about twenty species 

 and subspecies inhabiting the tropical and warm temperate portions of con- 

 tinental America (one species being peculiar to Cuba), with a few forms occur- 

 ring in the warmer portions of the United States, among them the Blue-gray 

 Gnatcatcher (P. ccerulea) of the Eastern States. They are excessively active, 

 industrious little birds, frequenting usually the topmost branches of the tallest 

 trees, " skipping nimbly from twig to twig, with lowering half-spread wings and 

 nervous twitchings of the whole body, in eager quest of insects and larvae, now 

 pausing a moment to pry more closely into a suspected crevice of the bark, 

 then darting into the air to capture a passing fly, and regaining their perch after 

 almost a somersault." This species is abundant near Washington, B.C., 

 where their shrill, noisy notes, like tzee-tzee-tzee, may be heard in early April; 

 but a few weeks later the sharp accents are modulated into a low, sweet, fault- 

 lessly executed song. Their nests are exquisite examples of bird architecture, 

 being very deeply cup-shaped structures composed of strips of soft bark, thistle- 

 down, and the like, stuccoed outside with lichens, and firmly fastened in a crotch 

 or on a branch, usually at a considerable height from the ground. The four to 

 five eggs are bluish white thickly spotted with brown. A subspecies of the 

 above, known as the Western Gnatcatcher (P. c. obscura), occurs from west- 

 ern Texas to California and Lower California ; it is slightly grayer above and 

 has less white on the tips of the tail-feathers. With nearly the same range is 

 the Plumbeous Gnatcatcher (P. plumbea), which maybe known by its shining 

 black crown and blacker tail. Its habits are like those of the Eastern form, 

 but its eggs are pale greenish blue spotted with reddish brown. 



