KING-BIRD, OR TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 267 



summer food. T have also seen them collecting the can- 

 ker-worms from the Elm. Towards autumn, as various 

 kinds of berries ripen, these constitute a very considera- 

 ble and favorite part of his subsistence ; but, with the ex- 

 ception of currants (of which he only eats perhaps when 

 confined), he refuses all exotic productions, contenting 

 himself with black-berries, whortle-berries, those of the 

 sassafras, cornel. Viburnum, elder, poke, and 5-leaved 

 ivy.* Raisins, foreign currants, grapes, cherries, peach- 

 es, pears, and apples were never even tasted, when offer- 

 ed to a bird of this kind, which I had many months as 

 my pensioner ; of the last, when roasted, sometimes, 

 however, a few mouthfuls were relished, in the absence 

 of other more agreeable diet. Berries he always swal- 

 lowed whole, grasshoppers, if too large, were pounded 

 and broken on the floor, as he held them in his bill. To 

 manage the larger beetles was not so easy ; these he 

 struck repeatedly against the ground, and then turned 

 them from side to side, by throwing them dexterously in- 

 to the air, after the manner of the Toucan, and the 

 insect was uniformly caught reversed as it descended, 

 with the agility of a practised cup-and-ball player. At 

 length, the pieces of the beetle were swallowed, and he 

 remained still to digest his morsel, tasting it distinctly, 

 soon after it entered the stomach, as became obvious by 

 the ruminating motion of his mandibles. When the 

 soluble portion was taken up, large pellets of the indiges- 

 tible legs, wings, and shells, as likewise the skins and 

 seeds of berries, were, in half an hour or less, brought up 

 and ejected from the mouth in the manner of the Hawks 

 and Owls. When other food failed, he appeared very well 

 satisfied with fresh minced meat, and drank water fre- 

 quently, even during the severe frosts of January, which he 



*Cissur'} hederacea. 



