The Western Gnatcatcher 
only pray to be taken 
for a kindly cow and 
not for a human, the 
dread oppressor of the 
wild. The lithe, trim 
figure swayed and teet¬ 
ered and flittered and 
posed till my heart over¬ 
flowed with joy; and all 
the while he kept up a 
happy little chatter 
which was music if not 
song. The “biz” notes 
came only as gold beads 
interspersed between 
the parts, and when 
birdikins was through in¬ 
spection he said daezz, 
awhile, slowly and 
solemnly. If I could 
worship anything mortal 
it would be in such a 
form. 
This trim, active little 
figure is oftenest found 
in the half-open brush- 
patches which flank arid 
hillsides, in the sage 
proper (meaning, this 
time, Salvia and not 
Artemisia ), or about the 
scattering oaks of Upper 
Sonoran foothills. His 
is, without question, the 
blithest disposition which the chaparral association has evolved; and 
his busy, friendly ways have endeared him to every bird-lover. Seen 
oftenest, perhaps, in little family troupes, a visitation of Gnatcatchers 
may well be deemed a happy event, not alone for the cheery animation 
of movement and comment which it displays, but because it is a visitation 
of expert husbandmen, practical entomologists, bent upon searching out 
and destroying every nit or aphis or tiny grub which lurks about the 
foliage of desert plant or garden shrub. I have seen one stow away 
<T?//as* /Sr* 9 f- 
WESTERN GNATCATCHERS 
811 
