THE OOLOGIST 



69 



of the birds — during the past season 

 I noticed fully six pairs in a woods of 

 some ten acres. Not always are the 

 birds found in woods but frequently 

 resort to groves of oaks, hickories, 

 etc.; small clusters of trees or sap- 

 lings; and rarely to apple orchards. 

 At times I have known the birds to 

 make their homes in rather isolated 

 trees, standing some distance from 

 either wood, grove, or thicket. Prior 

 to nest building the gnatcatchers flit 

 about the higher branches of the trees 

 where they secure the bulk of their in- 

 sect food. At times they descend to 

 the lower "branches and the under- 

 brush, where they glean harmful in- 

 sects from the foliage. 



THE SONG: Gnatcatchers are not 

 incessant singers; however, they fre- 

 quently utter a faint sweet song, re- 

 sembling more the song of some in- 

 sect than that of a bird, — this song is 

 quite low and one must be near to 

 the singer in order to hear it. The 

 usual and frequently uttered note of 

 the birds is an insect-like and not es- 

 pecially pleasant one. 



Food: The food of the Gnatcatcher 

 consists almost entirely of small wing- 

 ed insects and larvae — belonging prin- 

 cipally to the orders Hemiptera and 

 diptera. Spiders (arachnids) are al- 

 so devoured. The gnats and winged 

 mites they secure by darting about 

 the foliage — often in the flycatcher 

 manner. 



NEST AND EGGS: The nest build- 

 ing of the gnatcatcher begins early in 

 April, my earliest record for a started 

 nest being the 22nd. The place chosen 

 as a site may be either an upright 

 fork or a horizontal branch with a 

 forking protection branch above it. 

 This latter situation is the usual one; 

 it seems to be preferred on account 

 of the protection it affords from heavy 

 rain storms. The site varies greatly 

 as to height from the ground. Seven 



feet was the lowest nest found by me, 

 and sixty feet the highest. The nests 

 are usually placed well out from the 

 tree trunk, ten feet probably being the 

 average distance from the main stem. 

 I should judge that twenty-five or 

 thirty feet is the ordinary distance 

 from the ground. 



Both male and female birds assist 

 in nest building. The materials chosen 

 vary greatly, — fine bark strips, — either 

 of grape vine or inner tree bark — bits 

 of fine dry grass, both brown and gray 

 leaf down, — principally from the under 

 surfaces of leaves — and some dande- 

 lion or thistle down. The gnatcatch- 

 ers weave these materials about the 

 chosen branch and coat it on the out- 

 side with spider webs and lichen as 

 they build upward. In the nest lining 

 I have found ordinary soft leaf down, 

 some small feathers, pieces of lichen 

 exposing the under surfaces, and oc- 

 casionally some horse hair. The 

 measurement of a typical nest are: 2y 2 

 inches high by 2% inches wide, out- 

 side; iy 2 inches deep by l^inches 

 wide, inside. The nest of the blue- 

 gray gnatcatcher is, to my mind, the 

 most attractive of North American 

 birds' nests; it is always deeply cup- 

 ped and so beautifully coated with 

 lichen that it resembles closely the 

 branch upon which it rests. 



The trees chosen for nest location 

 are of several kinds. Most of the nests 

 that I examined were built in white 

 oak trees, — many others were in such 

 species as red oak, walnut, white ash, 

 American elm, yellow locust, sugar 

 maple, sycamore, and apple. 



The full laying of eggs is generally 

 five, four predominating should the 

 repulsive cowbird (molathrus aater) 

 add an egg of her's, — this is not a 

 rare occurrence either. During the 

 cool, or especially wet, years three 

 eggs often complete the clutch; how- 

 ever, five eggs must be considered the 



