584 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Nest. —In bushes or trees, deeply cup-shaped, compact, made largely of shreds 
of bark and leaves; lined with finer shreds and feathers, the outside decorated with 
lichen. Eggs: 4 or 5, pale greenish white, spotted with reddish brown and purplish, 
most heavily about the larger end. 
Food. —Almost exclusively insects, including beetles, wasps, bugs, and cater¬ 
pillars, with a few flies, grasshoppers, and spiders. Bugs make up more than half 
of the food—stink-bugs, shield-bugs, tree hoppers, leaf hoppers, leaf bugs, and black 
olive scales (in one stomach, 20 per cent)—all harmful to trees and other plants. 
Wasps and a few ants make up over 16 per cent. “Like the titmice and kinglets, 
gnatcatchers arc fitted by nature to perform a sendee which larger species are unable 
to accomplish” (Beal). 
General Habits. —The intense, vivacious little Western Gnat- 
catcher is always talking about something important, and always 
whipping around as he talks. One met with in the Hondo Valley in 
August had whipped around so effectively that he had worn off nearly 
all the white from his tail feathers and reduced some of them almost 
to shafts! 
To one interested in the study of bird psychology, a Gnatcatcher’s 
beautiful nest offers rich opportunity, for both parents are vitally 
concerned at all stages of the family history; they express freely and 
fully all they feel, and they feel an amazing amount for a small pinch 
of feathers. 
Additional Literature.—Merriam, F. A., A-Birding on a Bronco, 38-64, 
1896.— Myers, H. W., Condor, IX, 48-51, 1907. 
PLUMBEOUS GNATCATCHER: Polioptila plumbea plumbea (Baird) 
Description. — Length: About 4.2-4.0 inches, wing 1.9-2, tail 2.1-2.2. Adult 
male in spring and summer: Top of head glossy black in sharp contrast to bluish gray 
of back; upper tail coverts and tail black , outside tail feather with outer web white 
except at base, inner web tipped with white; wings slaty, with paler edgings; under* 
parts white, washed with bluish gray on sides. A dult male in fall and winter: Similar, 
but black feathers of head more or less tipped with slate-gray. Adult female: Sim¬ 
ilar to adult male but head slate-gray, without black, rest of upperparts brownish 
gray varying to hair-brown. 
Range. —Lower Sonoran Zone from southeastern California, Arizona, and New 
Mexico to Rio Grande Valley, Texas south to Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, and 
Cape San Lucas, 
State Records. —The Plumbeous Gnatcatcher occurs very locally in New 
Mexico; a pair were taken April 4, 1886, at Apache, which were the only ones seen in 
more than a year’s residence (Anthony); grown young were seen July 30, 1901, at 
Carlsbad, and a few days later the species was found not rare in the Guadalupe Moun¬ 
tains (Bailey). For 200 miles north of Apache, in the valleys of the Gila and San 
Francisco, the bird is not known, but it appears again at Fort Wingate apparently 
coming up the valley of the Rio Puerco of the West from Arizona. Here a specimen 
was taken July 5, 1864 (Coues); and one was seen near Gallup late in July, 1909 
(Fisher). [On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve they were seen occasionally in December, 
1916 (Willett).]—W. W. Cooke. 
