514 



SYSTE^fA TIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES— CLAMA TORES. 



crown with a flaming spot. Below, pure white, the breast shaded with plumbeous. Wings 

 dusky, with much whitish edging. Tail black, broadly and sharply tipped with white, the 

 outer feather sometimes edged with the same. Bill and feet black. Young: Lacking emar- 

 gination of primaries, and no crown-spot ; very young birds show rufous edging of wings and 

 tail. Length about 8.00; extent 14.50; wing 4.50; tail 3.50, even or slightly rounded ; bill 

 small; under 1.00. Temperate N. Am., but chiefly U. S. to Rocky Mts. ; rare or casual on the 

 Pacific slope ; N. in the interior to Saskatchewan and Athabascan regions, about lat. 57° ; 



abundant in summer ; 

 migratory mainly in 

 April and September ; 

 breeds throughout its- 

 range ; winters oti the 

 southern border and 

 beyond in some of the 

 West Indies, and 

 through Central Am. 

 and S. Am. to Bo- 

 livia. This trim and 

 shapely ''martinet,"' 

 in severe black and 

 white but with fiery 

 pompon, is familiar to 

 all, and equally noted 

 for irritability, pug- 

 nacity, intrepidity, 

 and its inveterate 

 enmity to Crows, 

 Hawks, and Owls, 

 wliich it does not 

 hesitate to attack, 

 cither in defence of 

 its nest or just to 

 show its spunk ; but 

 in its turn it is at- 

 tacked and sometimes- 

 worsted by the Hummingbird. Nest a conspicuous object in the orchard or by the wayside, 

 on the horizontal bough of a tree, large, cupped, compactly woven and matted with fibrous^ 

 and disintegrated vegetable substances; eggs 3-5, usually 3 or 4, rarely more, 0.85 to 1.05 

 long, averaging 0.95 X 0.72, white, rosy, or creamy, variously spotted or blotched in bold 

 (often beautiful) pattern with reddish and darker brown surface-spots and lilac shell-markings. 

 They are laid mostly in June, but in difi"erent latitudes are found also in May and July. The 

 Kingbird destroys a thousand noxious insects for every bee it eats ! (T. carolinensis of all 

 previous eds. of the Key.) 



T. dominicen'sis. (Of St. Domingo.) Gray Kingbird. Adult ^ 9 : Five or six outer 

 primaries usually emarginate. Crown-spot as before. Grayish-plumbeous, rather darker on 

 head : auriculars dusky. Below, white, shaded with ashy on breast and sides ; under wing- and 

 tail-coverts faintly yellowish ; wings and tail dusky, edged with whitish or yellowish ; tail- 

 feathers merely indistinctly lighter at extreme tip. Larger than the last: Length about 9.00; 

 wing 4.50; tail nearly 4.00, more or less emarginate; bill 1.00, very turgid. AVest Indies; 

 Florida regularly, in abundance; N. to S. Carolina rarely, to Massachusetts accidentally; has- 



Fig. 346. — Kingbird. 



