278 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



choruses all summer long. In July I found them quite plentiful in 

 South Park, whose elevation above sea level is about 9,500 feet. 



During the summer and autumn, after the breeding season is over, 

 some of them move up to the regions above timber-line, an altitude of 

 11,000 feet and over, where they range about on the grassy, flower- 

 decked slopes and acclivities and find insects to their taste. Then, as 

 winter approaches, they descend to the plains, and, after tarrying there 

 a while, most of them retire to a blander climate than Colorado affords, 

 although a few remain to spend the winter on the plains and among 

 the sheltering foothills. No birds lead a freer or more jubilant life 

 than the meadow-larks, whether they dwell in an eastern pasture 

 field, or on the stretching plains of the west, or in an elevated Rocky 



Mountain park. 



Leander S. Keiser. 



BLUE^GRAY GNATCATCHER. 



A. O. U. No. 751. (Polioptila caerulea) 



RANGE. 



Southern to middle portions of the Eastern U. S,, south in winter to 

 Cuba and the Bahamas; rarely found north to southern New England 

 and west to California. Migration in Tennessee — April and September. 

 DESCRIPTION. 



Length, about 4.5 inches. 



Male. — Grayish blue on upper parts, gray shading into white below. 

 Wings tipped with darker shade of gray. Outer tail quills white, grad- 

 ually changing darker to black quills in centre. Slight band of black 

 over eyes. 



Female. — Same as male with colors less distinct, and without black 

 marking on head. 



NEST AND EGGS. 

 The nest of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher is placed on a horizontal limb 

 or in a vertical fork at a distance ranging from 10 to 60 feet from the 

 ground, and often appears to be a mere mossy knot. The typical nest 

 is saddled to the limb with grace. The nest is a compact structure and 

 a thing of beauty. It is three or four inches high, and with well defined 

 walls and deeply cupped, being constructed of small grasses, hair, leaf- 

 down and hempen fiber woven and interwoven into a compact mass. 

 The exterior walls are beautifully decorated with lichens overlaid with 

 spider and caterpillar webs. The favorite nesting site is in the hickory, 

 pine, oak or elm tree. 



