270 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



length, assured of conquest, he returns to his prominent 

 watch-ground, again quivering his vi^ings in gratulation, 

 and rapidly uttering his shrill and triumphant notes. 

 He is therefore the friend of the farmer, as the scourge 

 of the pilferers and plunderers of his crop and barn-yard. 

 But that he might not be perfectly harmless, he has some- 

 times a propensity for feeding on the valuable tenants of 

 the bee-hive ; for these he watches, and exultingly twit- 

 ters at the prospect of success, as they wing their way 

 engaged in busy employment ; his quick-sighted eyes 

 now follow them, until one, more suitable than the rest, 

 becomes his favorite mark. This selected victim is by 

 some farmers believed to be a drone rather than the 

 stinging neutral worker. The selective discernment of 

 the eyes of this bird has often amused me ; berries of 

 different kinds, held to my domestic King-bird, however 

 similar, were rejected or snatched, as they suited his in- 

 stinct, with the nicest discrimination. 



As the young acquire strength for their distant journey, 

 they may be seen in August and September, assembling 

 together in almost silent, greedy, and watchful parties of 

 a dozen or more, feeding on various berries, particularly 

 those of the sassafras and cornel, from whence they some- 

 times drive away smaller birds, and likewise spar and 

 chase each other as the supply diminishes. Indeed, my 

 domestic allowed no other bird to live in peace near him, 

 when feeding on similar food, and though lame of a wing, 

 he often watched his opportunity for reprisal and revenge, 

 and became so jealous, that instead of being amused by 

 companions, sometimes he caught hold of them with his 

 bill, and seemed inclined to destroy them for invading his 

 usurped privileges. In September the King-bird begins to 

 leave the United States, and proceeds to pass the winter 

 in tropical America. During the period of migration 



