44 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



experience with nesting birds there, it might be inferred that 

 pugnacity is more developed in Bahaman birds than elsewhere ! 



B. S. Bowdish (1903) states that the gray kingbird sometimes utters 

 a note "at times quite similar to some the phoebe occasionally utters." 

 I have been impressed with this also and have heard it several times 

 in the Florida Keys. 



Field marks. — The gray kingbird is a very distinctive and indi- 

 vidual species. I can see no reason for confusion or doubt about iden- 

 tification arising from any similarity to others of its genus, even on 

 first sight. True, it is similar to the common kingbird in contour 

 and general appearance at a distance, but in any position, or almost 

 any distance within reason, it is instantly to be recognized as a 

 kingbird. Audubon (1840) though of course recognizing the first 

 ones he saw as something different, seemed much impressed by the 

 similarity to tyrannus. He says that "its whole demeanour so much 

 resembles that of the Tyrant Flycatcher, that, were it not for its 

 greater sizer, and the difference in its notes, it might be mistaken 

 for that bird, as I think it has been on former occasions by travellers 

 less intent than I on distinguishing species." 



Curiously enough, he makes no allusion whatever to what I con- 

 sider the bird's most striking character as compared to other king- 

 birds. That is its color! This has certainly appealed to nearly 

 everyone who has seen the species and can hardly fail to do so. 

 There is no mistake in this bird's name, for the gray kingbird is 

 eminently and strikingly gray. The first one I ever saw vividly 

 brought to mind the loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludoviciana) , not in 

 shape, size, or anything save the color. Somehow ever since the 

 shrike has come to my mind when I have seen a gray kingbird. 



Referring again to F. M. Weston's excellent notes, we find that 

 he characterizes the shade of gray as an "almost ghostly paleness." 

 That it impressed him markedly is evidenced in the following com- 

 ment: "On first acquaintance with the gray kingbird, an observer 

 familiar only with the eastern kingbird is struck by the much larger 

 size, i^articularly the larger beak, of the gi^ay bird. The lack of the 

 white terminal band on the tail is immediately noticed. The most 

 striking feature though is the almost ghostly paleness of the whole 

 bird when seen in its chosen habitat of pale vegetation and glaring 

 sunlight. Among the sparse grayish-green foliage and pale-gray 

 bushy twigs of the scrubby live oaks, the bird enjoys almost perfect 

 color protection." 



Among mangroves this blending of bird and background is not to 

 be noted. The mangrove does not occur in the Pensacola region, 

 however, and Weston has not seen the bird in far southern Florida. 



