350 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



highly pleasing melody. A rich, varied, full-throated warble, 

 it is scarcely excelled by any of our native birds. While sing- 

 ing the little fellow displays his half -concealed crown-patch to 

 good advantage and renders identification perfectly easy. 



Food habits. — Professor Beal, who has investigated the food 

 of this kinglet in California, finds it to be composed of 94 per 

 cent animal matter and 6 per cent vegetable matter. "Hyme- 

 noptera, in the shape of wasps, and a few ants, appear to be 

 the favorite food, as they aggregate over 32 per cent of the 

 whole." Eugs were next in importance, constituting nearly 

 26 per cent of the food ; beetles furnished 13 per cent and flies 

 17 per cent. Caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and spiders 

 made up most of the remainder. The vegetable matter in- 

 cluded fruit, principally elderberries, weed seed, and seeds of 

 poison oak.f 



BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER: Polioptila caerulea 

 eaerulea (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The blue-gray gnatcatcher is a common 

 summer resident in all sections. It has been recorded in the 

 breeding season at Elkmont, Sand Mountain (Jackson 

 County), Squaw Shoals, Natural Bridge, Seale, Abbeville, 

 Castleberry, Mobile, Dauphin Island, and other places. Mi- 

 grants from the south appear during March, having been 

 first noted at Montgomery, March 10 (1908) ; Shelby, March 

 11 (1898) ; Woodbine, March 15 (1908) ; Autaugaville, March 

 20 (1913) ; Leighton, March 24 (1890) ; Anniston, March 26 

 (1916) r and Greensboro, March 27 (1888). The bird has 

 been seen in autumn, at Bon Secour, as late as October 24 

 (1908), but it probably departs from the northern part of the 

 State in September. It has been rarely reported from the 

 coast of Louisiana and Mississippi in winter, but has not been 

 observed in Alabama at that season. Nest building begins 

 shortly after the birds arrive, and sets of eggs have been found 

 at Booth, April 17; Greensboro, April 24 and May 4; and 

 Leighton, May 26. 



General habits. — This gnatcatcher lives in open woodland 

 and in pastures and cultivated lands where there are trees and 



tBeal, F. E. L., Biol. Surv. Bull. 30, pp. 81-84, 1907. 



