TYRANNID.E — THE TYRANT FLYCATCHERS — TYRANNUS. 



513 



Hah. Western North America, from the High Central Plains to the Pacific. Acci- 

 dental in the Eastern States. 



This beautiful and abundant species arrives in the State about March 

 20th, and I think none remain within our limits during winter. Small par- 

 ties of males come first, which are constantly quarrelling until the victors 

 have decided the contest and selected their mates. This does not seem to 

 take place for several M'eeks, as I have not found a nest with eggs earlier 

 than May 12tli at Santa Barbara. Tliis nest was built on a branch of a low 

 oak near the town, was five inches wide, and constructed of lichens, twigs, 



coarse grass, and wool, lined with hair, and the four eggs it contained were 

 creamy-white spotted with purple of two shades near large end, measuring 

 0.94 X 0.70 inch. They exhibit similar courage in defence of their nest, 

 and are in fact almost the exact counterpart of the king-bird in habits. 

 Their notes are rather more varied and noisy, and they utter tliem almost 

 constantly during the spring, often when flying and fighting. As " bee- 

 birds " they are fully as destructive, but compensate for the damage by de- 

 stroying great numliers of no.xious insects, and therefore ought to be driven 

 away from the neighborhood of the hives instead of shot. Tliey leave the 

 State, I tliink, in October. With tliis species as with the king-V)ird, it is not 

 uncommonly the case that smaller l.)irds take advantage of its courageous 

 behavior in driving away predatory birds from its nest, by constructing 

 their own in the same neighborhood, so as to enjoy a certain amount of 

 protection. This reliance of one bird on another is shown stiU more strik- 

 ingly in regard to a Jamaican species of allied family, the Hadrostomus 

 niger, of about the size of the king-bird, which builds a nest as large as a 

 bushel measure, in tlie substance of wliicli half a dozen birds of other 

 species sometimes make their nest likewise. 



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