178 Scientiftc Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



found in the woodlands, preferring the open prairie even to the 

 sheltered glades, 



PoLiOPTiLA c^RTJLEA (Linn.) Blue-gray (rnatcatcher. — This 

 minute bird is an abundant summer visitor, arriving in small 

 parties about the middle of March, and becoming excessively 

 common in all the wooded districts by the end of the month. 

 During the breeding season they escape observation unless closely 

 looked for, as they keep principally among the upper branches of 

 thickly-foliaged trees, and are either quite silent or else their 

 song is so weak that it is overlooked among the host of songsters 

 which at this time enliven the woods ; but about August they 

 appear again with their young, and are numerous during the fol- 

 lowing month, after which none but stragglers are seen. While 

 here they frequent the thickly-wooded creeks and river bottoms 

 — in the latter mostly — affecting the edges of clearings and open 

 spaces, orchards, and such like, and though usually remaining 

 among the higher branches of the trees, showing an evident pre- 

 ference for such as rise from a dense undergrowth of briers and 

 bushes. I found only three nests of the gnatcatcher, each of 

 which was built in a similar manner, placed upon a mesquite at 

 some distance from the ground, and about half-way along one of 

 the main branches, upon which it appears to stand without sup- 

 port, but to which it is in truth most firmly and ingeniously 

 fastened by threads of wool or spiders' webs. The nest, which is 

 deep and cup-shaped, narrower at the entrance than in the 

 interior, is a beautiful structure, composed of fine grass, cotton, 

 wool, Spanish moss, and feathers, woven compactly together and 

 covered thickly outside and sparsely inside with silvery lichens, 

 similar to those with which the branches of the mesquites are 

 clad ; and the delicate tints and fragile texture of the eggs 

 make them fully worthy of so fair a resting-place. The first 

 setting of the eggs — four or five in number — is deposited early in 

 May, and the second about the end of June. During the fall they 

 go in family parties, diligently seeking among the upper branches 

 for the small insects which, in their various stages, form their 

 sole food. They are interesting and active little birds, inces- 

 santly on the move, hopping from twig to twig, peering curiously 

 into every crevice and cranny of the bark, occasionally even 



