GNATCATCHEE. 219 



Common summer resident. Breeds. Arrives about the middle of 

 April and leaves about the middle of September. This interesting 

 bird, the smallest of all our birds excepting the Hummingbird, is 

 found throughout the State in woodland. On its first arrival it is 

 seen in small companies, often in company with Titmice, Kinglets, 

 and Nuthatches. They frequent the tallest trees, and are very active 

 in search of food. A company of these birds thus engaged are a 

 very attractive sight to the ornithologist. But little more shy and 

 suspicious than the Kinglets, their titmouse like attitudes, as they 

 trip from bough to bough, or, flying with expanded tail, sieze some 



A mature male and female were recently seat me from Fairport, Geauga county, by 

 the Hon. Kalph Granger, and I am aBaured by a gentleman that one has been taken alive 

 in the vicinity of Buffalo, in the State of New York. Another was taken at Warren, in 

 Trumbull county, two years since, and became so far domesticated as to run about the 

 barnyard in company with the fowls during the summer, but at the approach of autumn 

 suddenly disappeared. 



The late Dr. Ward informed me that he had occasionally met with them in Eosooe, 

 Coshocton county, and Dr. Sager assures me that they visit Michigan. I have repeatedly 

 heard of them in other sections of the western States. 



In their habits they are so retiring and secluded that they may escape even the most 

 active and sagacious observer. 



The buff- breasted sandpiper {Tringa rufescena), which seems to be a rare species in 

 most parts of our country, was seen in the vicinity of this city in three different instances 

 during the last autumn. I secured two specimens, one of which I presented to the New 

 York Lyceum of Natural History ; the other is retained in my own collection. This bird 

 was unknown to Wilson and Bonaparte, and also to Mr. Audubon, until he received a 

 specimen from England. It seems to be extremely shy and wary in its habits, and when 

 watched by a gunner, will skulk behind some little hillock or tufts of grass. The indi- 

 viduals seen by myself were on a sandy flat, not immediately contiguous to water. In 

 one instance Dr. Terry met with it in the public highway near this city. 



The dunlin, ox-bird, or purre (Tringa alpina), visited us in large flocks during three or 

 four weeks last autumn, and it has again appeared in a few instances the present spring. 

 I have specimens preserved both in the summer and winter plumage. 



Mr. Audubon informs his readers that he has never found one far inland. 



The Cape May warbler {Sylvia maritima) visits the northern parts of Ohio in small 

 numbers every spring. A solitary individual may be seen here and there, busily em- 

 ployed in catching insects about the cherry and apple trees at the time they put forth 

 their blossoms. 



According to Mr. Nuttall, it " has only been seen near the swamps of Cape May, in 

 New Jersey, and near Philadelphia." 



The chestnut-sided warbler (Sylvia icterocephala) is not uncommon with us for a 

 few days in spring, and in one instance I saw a pair in a cranberry marsh in Boardman, 

 Trumbull county, on the first day of June. The male was warbling its soft notes from 

 the top of a youtg maple, and the female skipping about the bushes below. I am con- 

 vinced they were preparing for nesting in that vicinity. Its note is rather loud, but soft 

 and pleasant to the ear. Mr. Audubon seems to have met with it only in one instance. 



