288 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



Italian queens, etc. Kingbirds are here ever}' season, and are to 

 be seen around my beehives. Years ago I killed some and 

 examined their stomachs, and found them full of bees, but nearly 

 every bee in them was a drone; I found only one zvorker bee. 

 You know the drones have no sting, and, as their name implies, 

 they are of no use in the hive. They are the male bees, and their 

 only use is to fertilize the queen bee. The only damage the King- 

 bird can do is that they might sometimes catch the young queen 

 while on her wedding flight, as her size and slow flight make her 

 quite conspicuous. But the possibility of this happening is so 

 slight that I never now shoot the Kingbird." (Nash, " Birds of 

 Ontario in relation to Agriculture.") 



" The Kingbird manifests its presence in many ways. It is 

 somewhat boisterous and obtrusive, and its antipathy for hawks 

 and crows is well known. It never hesitates to give battle to any 

 of these marauders, no matter how superior in size, and for this 

 reason a family of Kingbirds is a desirable adjunct to a poultry 

 yard. On one occasion in the knowledge of the writer, a hawk 

 which attacked a brood of young turkeys was pounced upon and 

 so severely buffeted by a pair of Kingbirds, whose nest was near 

 by, that the would-be robber was glad to escape without his prey. 

 Song birds that nest near the Kingbird are similarly protected." 



" The Biological Survey has made an examination of 281 

 stomachs collected in various parts of the country, but found 

 only 14 containing remains of honeybees. In these 14 stomachs 

 there were in all 50 honeybees, of which 40 were drones, 4 were 

 certainly workers, and the remaining 6 were too badly broken to 

 be identified as to sex. 



The insects that constitute the great bulk of the food of this 

 bird are noxious species, largely beetles — May beetles, click 

 beetles (the larvae of which are known as wireworms), weevils, 

 which prey upon fruit and grain, and a host of others. Wasps, 

 wild bees, and ants are conspicuous elements of the food, far 

 outnumbering the hive bees. During summer many grass- 

 hoppers and crickets, as well as leaf-hoppers and other bugs, are 

 also eaten. Among the flies were a number of robber flies — in- 

 sects which prey largely upon other insects, especially honey- 

 bees, and which have been known to commit in this way extensive 

 depredations. It is thus evident that the Kingbird by destroying 



