THE KING-BIRD. 129 



centre, white behind, and before partially mixed with orange; lower parts pure- 

 white, tinged with pale bluish -ash on thf sides of the throat and across the breast; 

 sides of the breast and under the wings similar to, but rather lighter than, the back; 

 axillaries pale grayish-brown tipped with lighter; the wings dark-brown, darkest 

 towards the ends of the quills ; the greater coverts and quills edged with white, 

 most so on the tertials; the lesser coverts edged with paler; upper tail coverts 

 and upper surface of the tail glossy -black, the latter ver}' dark brown beneath; 

 all the feathers tipped, and the exterior margined externally with white, form- 

 ing a conspicuous terminal band about twenty-five one-hundredths of an inch 

 broad. 



The 3'oung of the year is similar, the colors duller, the concealed colored patch 

 on the crown wanting; the tail more rounded, the primaries not attenuated. 



Specimens vary in the amount of white margining the wing feathers; the upper 

 tail coverts are also margined sometimes with white. 



Length, eight and fifty one-hundredths inches ; wing, four and sixty-five one- 

 hundredths inches; tail, three and seventy one-hundredths inches ; tarsus, seventy- 

 five one-hundredths inches. 



THIS common species is abundantly distributed through- 

 out New England as a summer resident. It arrives 

 from the South about the 1st to the 10th of May : the males 

 precede the females in small parties of three or four, the 

 latter arriving about a week or ten days later. 



Soon after the arrival of the females, the males begin 

 their attentions to them; and, as the season of courtship is 

 comparatively short, the new-made couple soon begin their 

 selection of a locality for their nest. This seems to be with 

 them a rather difficult matter to settle ; for I have known of 

 a pair remaining in an orchard a fortnight, examining every 

 tree and its peculiar advantages, before they made a selec- 

 tion. 



At last, when the location is decided, both birds com- 

 mence work, and the nest is soon completed. It is usually 

 placed on the branch of an apple or pear tree, in a small 

 cluster of twigs or a crotch of a limb : it is constructed 

 outwardly of coarse grasses, mosses, twigs, roots, and 

 weeds; and is deeply hollowed, and lined with fine roots, 

 horse-hairs, and grasses. About the 1st of June, the eggs 

 are laid : these are usually five in number ; their ground- 

 color is a very delicate creamy- white, with irregular spatters 

 and spots of different shades of brown, and some obscure 



9 



