Cassin's Kingbird 263 



of insects caught on the wing, and while they have been 

 accused of destroying honey-bees, it appears that only 

 the drones attract them, and that they are in every way 

 most useful and desirable birds and deserve rigid 

 protection. 



The nest, which is completed about the first week in 

 June, is generally placed in a fork or on a horizontal 

 bough of a cotton-wood tree, and is often a bulky structure. 

 The eggs, three or four in number, closely resemble those 

 of the Kingbird and measure about '93 x "69 inch. 



Cassin's Kingbird. Tyrannus vociferans. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 448— Colorado Records— Aiken 872, p. 205 ; 

 Henshaw 74, p. 343 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 195 ; Drew 85, p. 17 ; 

 Beckham 87, p. 122 ; Morrison 89, p. 146 ; Kellogg 90, p. 88 ; Lowe 

 92, p. 101 ; Cooke 97. pp. 87, 209 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Gihnan 07, p. 155 ; 

 Rockwell 08, p. 166; Warren 09, p. 15 ; Henderson 09, p. 232. 



Description. — Closely resembling T. verticalis in size and colour, 

 but the breast a much darker ashy, and contrasting more strongly 

 with the whiter chin ; the outer web of the outer tail-feather below 

 paler than the inner one, but never pure white ; four outer primaries 

 abruptly attenuated, the outermost (tenth) shorter than the fifth ; 

 middle toe shorter than the tarsiLs. Length about 7-9; wing 5-30; 

 tail 3-70 ; tarsus -82 ; culmen -70. 



The female resembles the male in colour, but the tips of the primaries 

 are hardly attenuated, and the orange-red crown spot is somewhat 

 restricted ; the young birds have no crown-patch. 



Distribution. — Breeding throughout the south-western portion of the 

 United States, from Wyoming southwards to western Texas and 

 through New Mexico and Arizona to southern California (but not, 

 apparently, in Utah or Nevada) ; also in northern and middle Mexico, 

 wintering in southern Mexico and Guatemala, and also, it is said, in 

 southern California. 



In Colorado Cassin's Kingbird is a common summer resident along 

 the eastern foothills and the adjacent plains, arriving in El Paso co. 

 about the second week in May, a little later than the Arkansas 

 Kingbird. It ranges up into the mountain parks to 9,000 feet, 

 having been observed breeding at that elevation near Breckenridge 

 by Carter, and by Kellogg in Estes Park at 8,000 feet. North 

 of the Arkansas-Platte divide this species does not appear to be 

 nearly so abundant, as it has only once been met with by Henderson 



