BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 433 
the Colorado Valley,” that it does not visit this State, in which 
at this date, heisalmost but not qnite right. My collections 
embrace the months of May, June and July. 
At what precise time it has been observed to arrive in Min- 
nesota I cannot state except that two have been obtained be- 
fore the 20th of May. If any nests have been collected, the 
fact has not been communicated to me up to this time. It is 
a species with which I became quite familiar in California 
when collecting in the southern portion of that state. The P. 
melanura or Black-tail was a more common species, resembling 
it so much in appearance and manners that with difficulty I 
learned to separate them without shooting them first, unless 
near enough to distinguish the dark tail and black crown of the 
_latter. 
Mr. R. S. Williams of this city obtained the first specimen 
of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on the 19th of May, 1877. It was 
amale. Quite remarkably this bird was also first observed in 
in Massachusetts, November, 1876. (Bulletin Nuttall Club, 
Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 46). 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Above grayish-blue, gradually becoming bright blue on the 
crown; anarrow frontal band of black extending backward over 
the eye; under parts and lores bluish-white, tinged with lead 
color on the sides; first and second tail feathers white except 
at the extreme base which is black, the color extending ob- 
_liquely forward on the inner web; third and fourth black with 
white tips, very slight on the latter; fifth and sixth entirely 
black; upper tail coverts. blackish-plumbeous; quills edged ex- 
ternally with pale bluish-gray, which is much broader, and 
nearly white on the tertials. 
Length, 4.30; wing, 2.15; tail, 2.25. 
Habitat, middle and southern portions of the United States. 
Family TURDID.®. 
TURDUS MUSTELINUS GME Lin. (755. ) 
WOOD THRUSH. 
This peerless songster arrives about the 5th to the 10th of 
May, the latest record I have of my own, or any of my corres- 
pondents for many years being May 12th. The males arrive a 
little in advance of the females, but only a little, for they are 
silent until the arrival of the others, and not more than three 
or four days after the earliest are known to have come, their 
songs begin to be heard. 
