BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER. 93 
seen such gigantic live and water oaks, loblolly bays', magnolias and cabbage palms’. 
Many of the huge forest monarchs were entangled to their very tops in a mass of woody 
vines, such as the Virginia? and trumpet creeper* and bignonias®, while the smaller trees 
and bushes were covered with fragrant Carolina jasmine® The luxuriant ferns, orchids, 
and especially air plants’ growing parasitically on the branches of almost every tree, 
give these woods a decidedly tropical appearance, a peculiar charm. Near the water’s 
edge we find the fragrant white lily-like crinum®, and several species of deliciously scented 
spider lilies®, and a great variety of half-aquatic plants. The brownish water of the lake 
swarms with fish. The greatest attraction, however, are the many cultivated and wild 
orange groves found on the borders of the lake. Whether the wild orange is indigenous 
is as yet an unsettled question, but the weight of evidence seems to be in favor of the 
idea that it was first introduced by the Spaniards, and that the wild orange groves 
now found in various localities are simply the result of that deterioration which so 
many cultivated plants undergo when left for long periods to run riot in a state of 
nature. The adjoining pine lands with their high and scattered trees and their dense 
undergrowth of huckle-berry bushes and saw-palmettos” look poor against these rich 
hammock woods. Among birds, I saw here a great number of Yellow-throated Warblers 
and particularly GNaTCATCHERS, which: generally took their exercise high up in the tops 
of the huge magnolias and live oaks. 
One day, April 12, I was rambling with a friend through the woods near Gotha. 
We had been fishing in Long Lake and were now before a low-lying apparently very 
shallow body of water which was covered with a mass of water-lilies, among them the 
fragrant yellow water-lily", figured in Audubon’s great work, afterward lost sight of, 
and a few years ago re-discovered by the well-known naturalist Mrs. Mary Treat of 
Vineland, N. J.—Gallinules were busily engaged on the floating leaves, and now and then 
an Anhinga or Snakebird was seen. No sound was to be heard except the song of 
the Mockingbird. The forest consisted almost entirely of pines, and only near the lake 
small oaks and a few other trees were to be found. As I stood gazing on the mass of 
water-lilies I perceived a pair of little, nimble birds, clinging to the trunk of an oak, 
and loosening lichens from the bark. I was much surprised to see them fly directly 
to a tree near which I stood. As I looked up I saw, scarcely nine feet from the ground, 
the beautiful lichen-decorated nest of my old well-known favorite, the BLUE-cRay Gnat- 
CATCHER. The chosen haunts of this tiny bird are usually the tall tree-tops in the river 
bottoms of the Middle and Southern States. Hence my surprise at finding it in such a 
locality as the one I have described. 
Its pretty, dwarfish form, its extraordinary adroitness in capturing flies and gnats, 
its very peculiar song, and the skill it shows in building its beautiful, decorated nest — 
such skill as is attained by few other birds—excites attention and stimulates admiration. 
The small genus Polioptila, consisting of about a dozen species, is confined to America, 
and is represented by the greatest number of species in Central and South America. 
Only three species are found in the United States, one in the East, the other two in 
the West. 
1 Gordonia Lasianthus. 2 Sabal Palmetto. % Ampclopsis quinquefolia. 4 Tecoma radicans. & Bignonia capreolata. 
6 Gelsemium sempervirens. 1 Tillandsia (several species). 8 Crinum americanum, ® Hymenocallis carribaca, crassi- 
folium, etc. 10 Sabal serrulata, 11 Nymphaea flava. 
