THE BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER. 237 



piles of brush, to search for insects or cobwebs. The Httle blue bundle of busi- 

 ness passes unmindful within a dozen feet of you, or if recalled to conscious- 

 ness by some stirring apprehension, pauses to wag its long tail through an arc of 

 a hundred and eighty degrees, or else to shake it up and down through almost 

 as great a compass. "Bis, bis, bis," the midget cries, and if you can only 

 mark the note well before the bird is lost again in the dense foliage of the tree- 

 tops, to which it soon returns, you have grasped a thread of recognition which 

 is always bound tightly to this little brother of the air. 



Sometimes the note is doubled so that the bird seems to say. Bawbee, 

 bawbee, but in any case there is a sort of buzzing resonance about it which is 

 distinctive. The pearly fay has also a dainty rambling song full of ethereal 

 phrases and delicate suggestiveness. In one passage it bears a marked resem- 

 blance to the "Sweet-to-eat" note of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Oije must, 

 however, get very near to the singer in order to catch anything worth while, 

 for the bird sings in the tiniest of voices. 



The nest of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is, after the Hummingbird's, the 

 daintiest in the woods. It is placed at any height from a dozen or fifteen feet 

 to the limit of the trees. That seen in the illustration was taken from an elm 

 tree at a height of sixty feet, and it is typical as to position, in showing the 

 protecting branch above. It would be very difficult to find nests at these 

 heights were it not ior the fact that the birds fly freely and directly to the 

 chosen spot, and occasionally betray their presence by buzzing while the nest 

 is a-making. Both birds work with unflagging industry, and prolong their 

 labors into the heated hours of each day. ' It is a rebuke to a sluggard to see 

 one dashing up to a tree and whirling around in the nest that is to be, and lay- 

 ing oflf the cobwebs at such a furious rate. The walls of the nest are built up 

 so high that only the tail of the sitting bird protrudes, looking curiously like a 

 handle to this lichen-covered cup. 



As soon as the young Gnatcatchers are able to make their wants known 

 they repeat incessantly the biz bis notes of the parents, and thus the strenuous 

 life of these most earnest little birds is begun at an early age. 



