I90 BIRDS OF AMERICA 



The Flycatchers for the most part inhabit the open country and prefer to hve about 

 gardens, orchards, and sparsely timbered hillsides. Several species are not averse to human 

 neighbors and make their nests in the crannies of buildings, while a number of others build 

 in covered sites, such as hollow trees, under bridges, or under the overhanging bank of a 

 stream. Many of the species show a strong liking for the vicinity of water, and are frequently 

 to be found in the neighborhood of streams or pools, and in dry parts of the country every 

 watering trough by the roadside has its attendant Flycatcher. This fondness for the vicinity 

 of water doubtless arises from the fact that insects are abundant in such situations. Most 

 of the species are migratory, though some of them within rather narrow limits. 



These birds are extremely agile upon the wing, and turn in the air with extraordinary 

 facility, which enables them to catch the flying insects, of which their food largely consists. 

 Their favorite method of feeding is to perch upon a post, stake, or leafless twig, and from 

 this outlook watch for their prey, and then to sally forth and snap the luckless insect in 

 midair, often with a sharp click of the bill and a sudden turn back toward the perch. 



One prominent characteristic, which is more or less marked in the whole family cf Fly- 

 catchers, is the pugnacity they display toward Crows, Hawks, or other large birds. This 

 is especially shown when the intruders come about the nests of Flycatchers; then they are 

 attacked with the greatest vigor and driven off. This trait is particularly marked in King- 

 birds, so that if a pair of them nest in the vicinity of a poultry yard they serve as protectors 

 of the poultry. 



Farmers and horticulturists have never accused the Flycatchers of doing any harm 

 to their crops. The most that has been said against them is that certain of the larger species 

 feed to a harmful extent upon honeybees. Stomach examinations, however, do not sustain 

 this accusation. Honeybees do not form an important percentage of the food, and, more- 

 over, a large proportion of those eaten are drones or males, of which, as is well known, there 

 is in every hive a superfluity. The real harm, if any, done by this family of birds is in the 

 destruction of predacious and parasitic hymenoptera, or four-winged flies. Of the former, 

 however, so few are eaten that their loss is of no practical importance. Some parasitic hymen- 

 optera are taken by most Flycatchers, and with certain of the smaller species they amount 

 to a considerable percentage of the food. While theoretically this is harmful to the interests 

 of husbandry, the precise amount of the damage is impossible of calculation. The parasites 

 themselves often destroy useful insects, including other parasites, or are themselves destroyed 

 by other insects, so that the cjuestion of the final result involves a problem so delicate and 

 complicated as to preclude exact solution. 



SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER 



Muscivora forficata (Giiirlin) 



A. O. U. Number 44J 



Other Names. — Swallow-tailed Flycatcher; Texan side) white (usually tinged with salmon-pink, some- 

 Bird of Paradise. times deeply of this color), the terminal portion mostly 



General Description. — Length, 14 inches. Head, black, this occupying between terminal third and ter- 



pale gray; body, gray but back with a pinkish tinge; niinal half of third feather; wings, dusky, the coverts 



tail and wings, blackish, with white markings. Tail, margined with gray or grayish-white, the primaries 



deeply forked; bill, hooked. Tail of male, 7 to 10 narrowly edged with light gray; lores, mi.xed dusky 



inches; that of female, shorter. and whitish; upper portion of sides of head, varying 



Color. — Crown and hindneck, clear pale gray, the from light gray (like crown) to dusky; cheeks, space 



center of crown with a small concealed patch of orange- below eye, chin, and throat, white, shading into very 



red, underlaid behind and laterally by white; back and pale gray on chest and breast; sides and flanks, salmon 



shoulders, light gray, usually suffused with pinkish red color to almost Saturn red, the under tail-coverts, 



or ocher-yellowish (more commonly the former), the similar but much paler and more pinkish; under wing 



shoulders and lower back sometimes almost uniformly patch, bright orange-red, under wing-coverts salmon- 



the former color; rump, brownish-gray, the feathers color or salmon-jiink ; inner webs of wing feathers 



darker centrally or with darker shaft-streaks; upper broadly edged with dull pinkish-white; bill, deep horn 



tail-coverts black or dusky, margined with grayish ; brown ; iris, brown. YouNc : Similar to adults, but 



six middle tail-feathers, black, margined terminally with crown-patch missing, 



pale grayish-brown or whitish ; three outermost (on each Nest and Eggs. — Nest; Placed in small trees or 



