62 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



this desirable material. About the poultry yards and farms the 

 kingbirds make free use of hen's feathers both in the body of the 

 nest and decoration around the rim, where the upstanding feathers 

 not only add to the beauty of the nest, but help to conceal the sitting 

 bird; one especially pretty nest was profusely decorated with brown 

 hen's feathers around the rim and was lined with white hen's feath- 

 ers and thistledown, making a pleasing contrast. 



R. C. Tate (1925) says that in Oklahoma these birds use "seven 

 and eight inch pieces of the thin inner bark from dead cottonwood 

 trees, rags, string, sandbur rootlets, horse-hair, wool from old sheep 

 carcasses, and cotton from discarded quilts. Pieces of dried snake- 

 skin are frequently made use of also." 



Eggs. — The Arkansas kingbird lays three to five eggs, usually four, 

 and occasionally six and even seven. They are almost exactly like those 

 of the eastern kingbird, though averaging slightly smaller. The 

 shape is ovate or short -ovate as a rule, but sometimes elongated-ovate 

 or even elliptical-ovate. The ground color varies from pure white to 

 pinkish white, or creamy white, and the eggs are more or less heavily 

 marked with small spots or blotches of various browns, "chestnut- 

 brown," "chocolate," "liver brown," or "claret brown," with underlying 

 spots and blotches of different shades of "Quaker drab," "heliotrope 

 gray," or "lavender." Tlie markings are sometimes grouped about 

 the larger end. The measurements of 50 eggs averaged 23.5 by 17.7 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 26.4 by 

 18.8, 25.4 by 19.1, and 19.8 by 15.7 millimeters. 



You7ig. — The period of incubation, as given by different observers, 

 is said to be 12, 13, or 14 days. Major Bendire (1895) says: 



This duty is mostly performed by the female, but I have also seen the male 

 on the nest, and he can generally be observed close by, on the look out for 

 danger. Both parents are exceedingly courageous in the defense of their 

 nest and young, and every bird of this species in the neighborhood will quickly 

 come to the rescue and help to drive intruders off as soon as one gives the 

 alarm. The young grow rapidly and are able to leave the nest in about two 

 weeks. They consume an immense amount of food, certainly fully their own 

 weight in a day. I have often watched the family previously referred to, 

 raised on the sill of roy attic window, and also fed them with the bodies of 

 the large black crickets while one of the parents was looking on, and appar- 

 ently approvingly, within a few feet of me. I have stuffed them until it 

 seemed impossible for them to hold any more, but there was no satisfying 

 them; it certainly keeps the parents busy from early morning till late at night 

 to supply their always hungry family. They are readily tamed when taken 

 young, and are very intelligent, making interesting pets [see Ridgway, 1869, and 

 Pinckney, 1938]. I believe that only one brood, as a rule, is raised in a season, 

 excepting possibly in the extreme southern portions of their range, in southern 

 Arizona and California, as I found fresh eggs on Billito Creek, near Tucson, 

 as late as July 20, in a locality where these birds had not been previously dis- 

 turbed, which seems to indicate that they occasionally may rear a second brood. 



