336 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



addicted to eating bees eq\ially with the Kingbird ; but as this bird is knDwn 

 to feed largely on berries, and to feed its young to some extent with the 

 same, the extent of such propensity may well be doubted. It is not so prone 

 to attack Ijirds larger than itself as is the Kingbird, which Wilson charac- 

 terizes as cowardice, but which it would be more charitable to call prudence. 

 It is said to be harsh, cruel, and vindictive to smaller birds and to weaker 

 individuals of its own species. 



In its tiiglit it moves witli power, steadiness, and swiftness, and when in 

 pursuit of insects follows its prey with great zeal and jjerseverance. When 

 it captures a large insect, it retires to its perch and beats it against the 

 limb. Tliese birds are not in the least gregarious. They occur in isolated 

 pairs, and appear to have no interest or sympathy with others than those of 

 their own household. To each other, however, they are attentive and con- 

 siderate, and they are devoted in their solicitude for their young. 



Their usual call-note is a sharp disagreeable squeak, which, once known, is 

 easily recognized. Besides this it has a monotonous succession of squeak- 

 ing, harsh notes, only a little less iiupleasant. They raise but one brood in 

 a season, and remain togetlier in a family group of from six to eight until 

 they leave, in the middle of Sejitemljer. 



During the early summer this species feeds chiefly upon insects of various 

 kinds, \\'hii_'h it catches with great facility, skill, and assiduity ; afterwards, as 

 if from choice, it chieily eats ripe berries of various kinds of shrubs and 

 plants, among which those of tiie poke- weed and the liucklelierry are most 

 noticeable. It nests altogether in lioUows in trees, stumps, or limbs. It 

 lines the bottoms of these hollows with a great variety of miscellaneous 

 materials, and in quantities that vary with the size and shape of the place to 

 be occupied. These beds are composed of loose hay, feathers, the hair of 

 various small quadrupeds, etc., while the exuviaj of snakes are almost always 

 to be met with. 



The eggs, four, five, or six in number, are peculiar and noticeably varied 

 and beautiful in tlieir style of markings, varying also somewhat in sliape. 

 Generally tliey are nearly spherical, and equally olituse at either end. 

 Occasionally they are an oblong oval, one end a very little more tapering 

 than the other. Their ground-color is a beautiful liglit Iniff, rather than a 

 cream-color, over which are wa^dng lines, marblings, markings, and dots of a 

 brilliant purple, and otliers of a more obscure shading. Tlie lines arc, 

 variously distributed, generally running from one pole of the egg to the 

 other with striking effect, as if laid on with the delicate brush of an artist. 

 In some eggs the whole surface is so closely covered with these intercrossing 

 and waving lines, blending witli the obscure cloudings of lilac, as nearly to 

 conceal the ground. Usually the buff color is conspicuously apparent, and 

 sets off the purple lines with great effect. 



An oblong-oval egg from Xew Jersey measures l.lil indies in length by 

 .70 of an inch in lireadlli. A more nearly spherical egg from Florida meas^ 



