202 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



is usually a great fighter, especially when his mate is sit- 

 ting. He perches on a branch over the nest and attacks 

 every bird that comes in sight, and the larger the bird 

 the more certain he is to attack it. 



The kingbird is so called because he is such a little 

 terror for fighting other birds. The farmers often call them 

 the bee martin, because in size and appearance when fiying 

 he somewhat resembles a martin, and when other food is 

 short he sometimes catches bees. I have often seen Jerry 

 do that, but from my observation I am led to believe 

 that he usually catches drones. I do not mean that if there 

 were no drones and he was hungry he would refuse a per- 

 fectly good worker bee, but drones are his preference. 



In color the bee martin is a dark bluish gray above, 

 while the head is grayish black crowned with a vermilion 

 spot bordered with yellow. The wings and tail are tipped 

 with white. The breast is gray or sometimes nearly white. 

 The female has an orange crown patch on her head a lit- 

 tle smaller than that of the male. 



Jerry and his wife decided to build their nest in the very 

 top of my Red June tree. First they selected a number 

 of small dry twigs and placed them as a foundation in the 

 forks of some small branches. Next they went to the 

 sheep pen and gathered wool in abundance and made a 

 thick felt lining for their nest. This evidently was in- 

 tended to keep it warm and to protect the eggs from any- 

 thing that might strike the side of the nest. Next they 

 began to take the strings and horsehair that had been put 

 up for the Baltimore orioles' special use and went to a great 

 pile of flax straw and gathered quantities of tow. Of these 

 strings, tow, and horsehair he built a very neat nest inside 

 of the wool lining. I say 'Tie," for Jerry seemed to be 



