GRAY KINGBIRD 35 



"News and Courier," wrote, under date of March 17, 1921, that 

 "Mr. W. B. Gadsden of Summerville [S. C] supplies the inter- 

 esting information that his father, the late Prof. John Gadsden, 

 obtained one of these birds [Gray Kingbird] on the grounds of Porter 

 Military Academy in Charleston, somewhere between 1881 and 1885. 

 Mr. Gadsden says that liis father was struck by the unusual appear- 

 ance of some birds in the Porter elms, and shot one of them with a 

 small rifle. He then took the bird to the College of Charleston 

 Museum [now the Charleston Museum] where it was definitely 

 identified as the Gray Kingbird." 



Unfortunately, the exact date cannot be ascertained now, nor can 

 the supposition that this was another city nesting record be sub- 

 stantiated. However, this information fills a gap between the Lee- 

 Audubon-Bachman instance and the Brewster-Wayne record, though 

 much closer to the latter in date. As far as cities are concerned, 

 Charleston certainly seems more in the limelight in regard to the gray 

 kingbird than any other in the country ! 



The remaining nesting records of South Carolina occurred on Sul- 

 livans Island, which was made famous by the Battle of Fort Moultrie 

 in the Revolution and which lies just across the harbor from the 

 City of Charleston. The first of these is described by Arthur T. 

 Wayne (1894) : 



In the early part of May, 1885, Mr. William Brewster and myself saw a pair 

 of Gray Kingbirds at Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island, S. C. I determined to 

 secure these birds v.ith their nest and eggs, and after several visits to the 

 Island I located their range, and on May 28, I found their nest which contained 

 one egg and shot the female bird. The nest was built in a silver-leaf poplar, in 

 a gentleman's yard [Maj. W. J. Gayer] only a few feet from his dwelling house. 

 The nest, as I remember it, was very frail. 



As might be supposed by anyone who knew Mr. Wayne, this dis- 

 covery fired him with intense enthusiasm, and he had the species in 

 mind every spring. He w\as always greatly attracted to the barrier 

 islands of the coast and visited them monthly throughout the year 

 with one bird or another in view. He ever connected Sullivans Island 

 with the gray kingbird, but it was not until 1893 that he was again 

 successful in finding the species there. His graphic account (1894:) 

 of that experience follows : 



On May 30 of this year [1893], I determined to search Sullivan's Island care- 

 fully for this rare visitor, and accordingly I arrived there early in the morning 

 of the above date. After walking the entire length of the Island near the front 

 beach [about 5 miles], and having failed to discover this species, I leisurely 

 searched the back beach. At twelve o'clock — mid-day — a bird I saw flying about 

 three hundred yards away I took to be this species. I followed the direction of 

 its flight until it was lost to view — over half a mile away. I at once hastened to 

 the spot, and to my delight found a veritable Gray Kingbird perched on the top 

 of a flag pole about fifty feet high in a private yard. The law on the Island 



