BIRDS OF KANSAS. 371 



stretch of 

 Length. wing. lV/?i£: Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 5.20 8.00 2.40 2.20 .64 .40 



Female... 5.00 7.70 2.30 2.10 .64 .40 



Iris brown; bill, upper black, under pale brownish at base; 

 legs, feet and claws black. 



This active, familiar species inhabits the edges of woodlands, 

 hedges, orchards and groves about the dwelling houses. They 

 are quite abundant in suitable localities throughout their range, 

 breeding from about 40° northward. During the breeding 

 season they are very watchful guardians of their homes; pug- 

 nacious, tyrannical little fellows, that dart with fury, rapidly 

 snapping their bills at any bird that ventures within their 

 grounds. This bold, combative spirit dies out with the breed- 

 ing season, and they then become inoffensive, peaceable birds, 

 that do not appear to be angered at the presence of others. 

 Like all of the family, they are expert fly catchers, and for a 

 dessert pluck the small berries in their season. Their common 

 note is an oft-repeated (at intervals emphatic), "Che-beck." 

 They also occasionally utter, with fluttering wings, a low, twit- 

 tering song, or rather an unmusical effort in that direction. 



Their nests are usually placed in upright forks of small trees, 

 sometimes on a horizontal limb; a small, compact felted nest, 

 composed of rootlets, fine soft fibrous strippings from plants, 

 intermingled with vegetable down, and lined with fine grasses, 

 shreds of bark, and frequently insect cocoons and small downy 

 feathers. Eggs two to four, .64x. 50; pure to buff white; in 

 form, ovate. A set of four eggs, taken June 15th, 1882, at 

 Pewaukee, Wisconsin, in the upright forks of a small oak tree, 

 and about ten feet from the ground, measure: . 62x. 51, . 63x. 51, 

 .64X.50, .64X.50. 



SuBOKDER OSCINES. So]^a Bieds. 



"Sides of the tarsus covered iu most or all of their extent with two undi- 

 vided horny plates, meeting behind in a sharp ridge (except in Alaudida'; one of 

 the plates imperfectly divided in a few other forms). Musical apparatus highly 

 developed, consisting of several distinct pairs of syringeal muscles. Primaries 

 nine only, or ten with the first frequently spurious, rarely over two-thirds the 

 length of the longest, never equaling the longest." 



