266 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



habited and remote interior of Canada.* In all this vast 

 geographical range the King-bird seeks his food and 

 rears his young. According to Audubon, they appear in 

 Louisiana by the middle of March, and about the 20th 

 of April, Wilson remarked their arrival in Pennsylvania, 

 in small parties of 5 or 6 ; but they are seldom seen in 

 this part of New England before the middle of May. 

 They are now silent and peaceable, until they begin to 

 pair, and form their nests, which takes place from the 

 1st to the last week in May, or early in June, according 

 to the advancement of the season in the latitudes of 40 

 and 43 degrees. The nest is usually built in the orchard, 

 on the horizontal branch of an apple, or pear tree, some- 

 times in an oak, in the adjoining forest, at various 

 heights from the ground, seldom carefully concealed, and 

 firmly fixed at the bottom to the supporting twigs of the 

 branch. The outside consists of coarse stalks of dead 

 grass and wiry weeds, the whole well connected and bed- 

 ded with cud-weed * down, tow, or an occasional rope- 

 yarn, and wool ; it is then lined with dry, slender grass, 

 root fibres, and horse-hair. The eggs are generally 3 to 

 5, yellowish white, and marked with a few large, well de- 

 fined spots of deep and bright brown. They often build 

 and hatch twice in the season. 



The King-bird has no song, only a shrill guttural twit- 

 ter, somewhat like that of the Martin, but no way musi- 

 cal. At times, as he sits watching his prey, he calls to 

 his mate with a harsh tsheup, rather quickly pronounced, 

 and attended with some action. As insects approach 

 him, or as he darts after them, the snapping of his bill is 

 heard, like the shutting of a watch-case, and is the cer- 

 tain grave of his prey. Beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 and winged insects of all descriptions form his principal 



* Being seen by Mr. Say at Pembino, lat. 49». f Oiiaphalium plantagineum. 



