20 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



extensively in the fall on the ripened seeds of the two common 

 native magnolias {M. foetida and M. virginiana) .^^ 



William L, Bailey (1915), speaking of the feeding of nestling 

 kingbirds, says: "To my amazement a large green dragon-fly with 

 great head and eyes, measuring across the wings at least four inches, 

 was jammed wings and all, into the mouth of one of the little ones. 

 After a few minutes, as if for dessert, a large red cherry fully one- 

 half inch in diameter was rammed home in the same manner." 



Robert T. Morris (1912) relates the following: "There is a sassa- 

 fras tree * * * at my country-place at Stamford, Connecticut, 

 which bears a heavy crop of fruit every year, and about the last 

 of August the Kingbirds gather in numbers, spending the entire 

 day in the tree, and strip it entirely of its fruit. * * * At the 

 time when they are gorging themselves with sassafras berries, they 

 seem to devote little time to catching insects." 



Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1938) includes "small fishes" as an item 

 in the kingbird's diet. 



The kingbird captures most of its food by pursuing a flying insect 

 and catching it in the air. Rarely, it snaps up a larva suspended by 

 a thread; and Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1920b) reports: "I have 

 seen a Kingbird swoop down and pick up an insect from the calm 

 surface of a pond without wetting a feather. I have also seen one 

 flying and picking off berries from a shad-bush without alighting." 



Of "terrestrial feeding kingbirds" William Youngworth (1937) 

 says: 



On June 3, 4, and 5, 1935, the Waubay Lakes region in northeastern South 

 Dakota was swept by high winds from the north and the temperature during 

 the night dropped to near the freezing point. Heavy frost was visible on two 

 mornings and it was such weather that caught the last migrating wave of 

 kingbirds and orioles. It was a common sight to find hundreds of Common 

 Kingbirds, Arkansas Kingbirds, and Baltimore Orioles in the lee of every 

 small patch of trees or brusli. The dust-filled air was not only extremely cold, 

 but apparently was void of insect life. Thus the birds resorted to ground 

 feeding, and here they hopped around picking up numbed insects. Usually 

 the birds just liopped in a rather awkward manner from one catch to the 

 next. However, occasionally the kingbirds would flutter and hop while picking 

 up an insect. 



Behm)ior. — Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1938) exactly describes the 

 habitat of the kingbird when he writes that it "lives in the more open 

 country, and is not fond of the deep forests. Cultivated lands, such 

 as orchards and the borders of fields, highways, brushy pastures, or 

 even open woodlands, are frequented also. It is not usually found 

 in any considerable flocks, but during migration sometimes many are 

 found within a relatively small area." 



If we were limited to one adjective to suggest the kingbird's charac- 

 ter as impressed on us by his behavior, I think most of us would use 

 the word "defiant" ; if we were allowed one more, perhaps we should 



