The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in the Public Garden, Boston, Mass. — In 



the earlj morning of October 22, 1904, which was clear with a light south- 

 westerly wind, following a southeasterly gale of fifty miles an hour along 

 the Middle Atlantic and New England coasts the previous day, I found 

 upon entering our Public Garden in the heart of the city a Blue-gray 

 Gnatcatcher (PoUoftila ccerulea). Immediately upon my entrance his 

 call was heard from a neighboring beech, and being different from any 

 call-note with which I was acquainted, — tiny, nervously given and oft- 

 repeated,— it guided me at once to the presence of the bird. He constantly 

 flitted from one bough to another with even more rapidity than does a kuig- 

 let and was of about kinglet size. The clear blue-gray of the entire head 

 and back, the white outer tail-feathers, the drooping of the wings and erect- 

 ness of the tail at once made his identity clear. He was also engaged in 

 his flittings in catching and eating insects. His companions were Black- 

 poll Warblers and Juncos. From the beech he took flight into a tall syca- 

 more maple and gradually worked down from the top of the tree into the 

 lower branches, where he was seen at very near range and his catching of 

 insects was observed with much interest. The House Sparrows, how- 

 ever, soon began to make trouble for him and at length drove him to a 

 distance, but not before I had spent twenty minutes with this so rare bird 

 in Massachusetts and made good acquaintance with it. I had not ob- 

 served whether it had a black forehead and black line over the eye, not 

 knowing at the time that these markings differentiate the male from the 

 female, but as the color of the entire upper parts was a conspicuously 

 clear 5&e-^raj/, and Coues's 'Key' describes the female as "duller and 

 more grayish above," it was not improbably a male. When I made my 

 usual morning visit to the Public Garden the next day, the Gnatcatcher 

 could not be found. In the 'Birds of Massachusetts,' compiled by 

 Messrs. R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen, and issued in 1901, but six 

 records of Polioptila ccErulea are given, namely ; Chatham, November 18, 

 1877; Falmouth, December 18, 1S77; Magnolia, August 27, 1879; Oster- 

 ville, September 26, 1S79 ; Brookline, September 8, 1S87 ; Highland 

 Light, October 9, 1S89. In the opinion of Mr. Willam Brewster it is not 

 improbable that the bird may have drifted north before the southerly 

 storm of October 2i. — Horace W. Wright, Boston, Mass. „ o 



, Apis . X:;. ll. J^n. , I9Q5! D . g 7- S »' 



A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in Brookline and Boston, Mass. — On 



December .3, 1910, when passing through Olmsted Park, lying partly in 

 Boston and partly in Brookline, I came upon an Orange-crowned Warbler 

 {Vermivora celala celala) in a planting of shrubbery. It was an unusually 

 brightly plumaged bird, others which I had seen in former seasons having 

 been much more dusky and dull-plumaged. This warbler had just gone 

 from view by taking a short flight out of my range of vision, when another 

 very small bird was seen directly before me, which by coloration, form, and 

 movement I perceived at once to be a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher {Polioptila 

 cwrulea). The tone of color of the upper parts was a very clear blue-gray, 

 and the nervous switching and erecting of the tail were characteristic 

 movements. I had several good views of the bird both in trees, on shrubs, 

 and on the ground before it passed from sight, when automobile travel 

 intervened. It appeared to be gleaning food of larvai or insect's eggs 

 from the twigs and remaining leaves. The following day five other ob- 

 servers, associate members of the A. O. U., to whom the Imowledge had been 

 given, ali^ saw this bird in the same park a little farther southward. The 

 earhest observer found it still in the company of the Orange-crowned 

 Warbler, but the later group, while, seeing the Gnatcatcher, was unable to 

 find the warbler. On December 4 the bird was on the Boston side of the 

 park, having been on the Brookline side when seen by me. In 'The Auk' 

 for January, 1905, p. 87, is a note of my earlier observation of a Blue-gray 

 Gnatcatcher on October 22, 1904, in the Boston Public Garden. — Horace 

 W. Wright, Boston. Mass. 



Aak 28. Att-mirfik fif-f/i: 



