48 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



to eat. Unlike short-winged birds which require a certain 

 domain to furnish the needed amount of food for themselves 

 and young, and for that reason have to separate more or less 

 according to the nature of their food and home, the long- 

 winged birds can live all the year around in large companies 

 and still find enough food, for they can in a short time travel 

 great distances to procure it. Many whose nesting habits 

 allow it, breed even in large colonies, but the Swift can not do 

 it, because his former nesting in hollow trees and his present 

 occupation of unused chimneys do not permit the presence of 

 more than a few nests together, as for the sake of cleanliness 

 they do not build their small saucer-shaped nests one directly 

 below another. But as soon as the young can fly, many fam- 

 ilies use one chimney for a common roost, and when migra- 

 tion begins their numbers are swelled by transients forming 

 aggregations of several hundreds, all entering one chimney 

 for rest and sleep. 



KINGBIRD. Tyrannus tyrannus. 



Among country people the Kingbird is one of the best- 

 known birds, because it likes farm land, where fields, mead- 

 ows and pastures are beset with clusters of trees and where 

 ponds or creeks are not far off. In the Garden, the new part 

 with its meadow and lake attracted a pair of this eminent 

 member of the Flycatcher family, and much of its animation 

 was due to the strange twittering notes and the peculiar hov- 

 ering flight of this pair. Nearly of the size of a Robin, but 

 black above and white beneath, the Kingbird can easily be 

 identified when perched upon some favorite prominence, and 

 the white tips of its tailfeathers are a good mark for recogni- 

 tion when in flight. 



Farmers who are wise protect these birds, not only because 

 of the flycatching quality, but for the good reason that it is a 

 protector of his fowl, assailing and driving off any hawk and 

 crow which makes its appearance in the neighborhood. Fool- 

 ish people call it Bee Martin and kill the poor bird, because 

 they see it sometimes near their bee-hives, believing that it 

 eats many bees, but careful investigation has shown that this 



