gnat catcher

If anything, the bird, the gnat catcher, is a symbol of a law that protects birds at the expense of subdivisions.

The fate of the eagle and the gnat catcher may depend in large part on what happens to the Endangered Species Act, the nation's most powerful environmental law.

The California gnat catcher, which has held up construction of housing projects because it nests in areas coveted by developers, or the Oregon silverspot butterfly, which likes the same coastal areas desired by golf course designers, are seldom evoked by the act's most passionate defenders.