136 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



and the interior of British Columbia. Winters in Central and 

 South America. 



In Missouri the Kingbird is one of the most common and best 

 known summer residents on cultivated land throughout the prairie 

 and Ozark border region, but much less common in the Ozarks, 

 where chiefly near towns or farmhouses. The first arrive in the 

 more southern part of the state in the second week of April, excep- 

 tionally even in the central part (Festus, Jefferson Co, April 7 and 

 10; St. Louis, April 10 and 14), where they are generally not seen 

 before the third week. In northern ^lissouri the first come pretty 

 regularly during the fourth week of the month or a few days 

 later, seldom earlier. The bulk of the species does not come 

 before the last days of April in the southern, and the first week 

 of May in the northern part. Transients are present until after 

 the middle of May, sometimes in troops of from 20 to 30, resemb- 

 ling Robins somewhat when on wing, or sitting dismally on fences 

 along the roads, when kept back by unseasonable weather. 

 After getting through with their household duties they withdraw 

 from the breeding grounds, much like the Martins, and, like 

 them, flock in the evening to common roosts, preferably willow 

 thickets along water courses. Many of their haunts are deserted 

 in July, others in August, when the distribution becomes local and 

 changeable, which means that migration has begun and our own 

 King birds are joined by others, themselves departing and being 

 replaced by others, until in the third week of September the last 

 are leaving the state. The last date in eight years at Keokuk, 

 according to observations of Mr. E. S. Currier, is September 10, 

 1893: at St. Louis, September 12, 1905; at Mt. Carmel, Sep- 

 tember 17, 1885; at Monteer, Shannon Co., September 20, 

 1903, and at New Haven, October 1, 1902, and October 4, 1903; 

 these latter dates exceptionally late. 



447. TiTiANNUS vERTiCALis Say. Arkansas Kingbird. 



Muscicapa verticalis. 



Geog. Dist. — Western North America; breeding from 100th 

 meridian westward to the Pacific; north to Assiniboia, Alberta 

 and British Columbia; south through Lower California and 

 western Mexico to Guatemala in winter. In migration to 

 southeastern South Dakota and eastern Nebraska. As a strag- 

 gler it has occurred in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, New York, 

 New Jersey, Maryland, etc. 



