SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER 87 



"It needs but little study of the food of the scissor-tailed jflycatcher 

 to show that where the bird is abundant it is of much economic value. 

 Its food consists almost entirely of insects, including so few useful 

 species that they may be safely disregarded. Its consumption of 

 grasshoppers is alone sufficient to entitle this bird to complete pro- 

 tection." 



Fortunately, these birds are enjoying the needed protection and 

 are seldom molested. They seem to be increasing in Texas and are 

 extending their range. Bendire (1895) noted that they were far 

 more common in many parts of Texas at that time than they were 20 

 years previously. Beal (1912) implied that these flycatchers seldom 

 alighted on the ground, but Samuel N. Rlioads (1892) "observed them 

 for hours gleaning insects in the open pastures and salt flats near 

 Corpus Christi, alighting without hesitation in the short grass to 

 secure or devour their food." Probably many grasshoppers, locusts, 

 and crickets are captured on the ground. This ground feeding may 

 account for the worn appearance of the long tails in summer 

 specimens. 



Behavior. — When first seen sitting on a bush or telephone wire, with 

 its long tail tightly closed and hanging straight down, the scissor- 

 tailed flycatcher impresses one as a trim, neat bird of soft, pleasing 

 colors and quiet mien. Or, as one flies in direct flight from one tree 

 to another, with its long streamers trailing out behind, there is no 

 indication of the flight gj'mnastics of this aerial acrobat. But, sooner 

 or later, the observer will be treated to an exhibition, well worth 

 watching, which has been so well described by Mrs. Florence Merriam 

 Bailey (1902a) as follows: 



One of his favorite performanoes is to fly up and, with rattling wings, execute 

 an aerial seesaw, a line of sharp angled VVVVVVs, helping himself at the short 

 turns by rapidly opening and shutting his long white scissors. As he goes up 

 and down he utters all the while a penetrating bee-bird scream ka-que6 — ka- 

 qucd — ka-que^ — ka-quee — ka-quee, the emphasis being given each time at the top 

 of the ascending line. * * * 



The hend of a family we saw on the Nueces River one day was guarding his 

 mate at the nest when another scissor-tail invaded his preserves. The angry 

 guardian flew at him in fury, chasing him from the field with a loud noise of 

 wings. At the first sound of combat the brooding bird's head appeared above the 

 nest and hopping up on the rim she watched the chase with craned neck till the 

 intruder with her lord and master close at his heels faded into white specks 

 in the blue. 



Another day we saw a scissor-tail in pursuit of an iiuiocent caracara who 

 was accidentally passing through the neighborhood. The slow ungainly caracara 

 was no match for the swift-winged flycatcher and with a dash Milvulus pounced 

 down upon him and actually rode the hawk till they were out of sight. 



She writes of seeing a scissortail overtake a lark sparrow, which Avas 

 pursuing an insect on the wing, and snatch the coveted morsel "from 

 under its bill." She and her husband foimd these flycatchers really 



