CHAPTER IV 

 THE FOLKLORE OF BIRD MIGRATION 



I WAS sitting on a hillside in the Catskill Mountains 

 a few years ago in June, when a hawk came sailing 

 over the field below me. Instantly a kingbird sprang 

 from the edge of the woods and rushed, in the cavalier 

 manner of that flycatcher, to drive the hawk away, pre- 

 sumably from its nesting neighborhood. The hawk tried 

 to avoid the pecking and wing-beating of its furious 

 little foe, but the tormenter kept at it; and before long I 

 saw the kingbird deliberately leap upward and alight on 

 the hawk's broad back, where it rode comfortably until 

 both birds were out of sight. I have seen a humming- 

 bird indulge in the same piece of impudence. 



The Arawak Indians of Venezuela relate that their 

 ancestors obtained their first tobacco-plants from Trini- 

 dad by sending a hummingbird, mounted on a crane, 

 to snatch and bring back the jealously guarded seeds. 

 The association of these birds in this way seems sig- 

 nificant. 



It was doubtless because adventures similar to that 

 of the kingbird were noticed long ago, that there grew 

 up the very ancient fable that on one occasion a general 

 assembly of birds resolved to chose for their king that 

 bird which could mount highest into the air. This the 

 eagle apparently did, and all were ready to accept his rule 

 when a loud burst of song was heard, and perched upon 

 the eagle's back was seen an exultant wren that, a stowa- 



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