The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. II. 



NOVEMBER, 1888. 



No. 10. 



THE KINGBIRD. 



FEW birds are better known to the 

 children than the Kingbird. The 

 eagle is commonly spoken of as the king 

 ■of birds, but how empty is such a title 

 when this little flycatcher appears upon 

 the scene. For all his great size, for all 

 his marvellous powers of flight, for all his 

 keen curved beak and his great sharp 

 crooked talons, the little Kingbird, which 

 is scarcely larger than the eagle's bill, 

 drives the great bird before him and makes 

 him put forth all his speed to escape the 

 constant attacks of his petty pursuer. 

 There are many small birds which are 

 possessed of sufficient courage to attack 

 hawks, crows and other birds of prey, in 

 the breeding season, when the latter ap- 

 proach their nests or threaten danger to 

 their new fledged young, but the Kingbird 

 never needs an excuse of this kind. As 

 soon as a rapacious bird comes anywhere 

 near him, he sallies forth to the battle, 

 which indeed is always a very onesided 

 one, and from which the tiny assailant 

 always comes forth the conqueror. It is 

 commonly supposed that this characteristic 

 of the Kingbird is wholly a noble one, and 

 deserving of nothing but praise, but we are 

 not altogether sure that this is the case. 

 It has occurred to us that perhaps the 

 Kingbird is a captious petulant fellow, 

 quarrelsome by nature and always on the 

 lookout for somebody that he can bully 

 and hector. The smaller birds, ready at 



any moment, if attacked, to take refuge in 

 a clump of bushes or among the thick 

 branches of a tree, would not give him 

 what he looks for — a fight, but the slow- 

 winged hawks and crows offer him exactly 

 the opportunity that he is in search of, and 

 he can pester them to his heart's content. 

 Their clumsy efforts to seize him, or to 

 avoid his attacks, are all in vain. He 

 easily evades the first and laughs at the 

 last, and darting down on his victim from 

 above he pecks and buffets him until weary 

 of the sport. Perhaps this view of the 

 Kingbird's character does him injustice. 

 Certainly it is wholly opposed to the gen- 

 eral idea which makes of this gray-coated 

 little warrior a hero, a knight errant, sa/is 

 />eur, who is always fighting battles for 

 others. We can hardly hope to learn 

 what the truth is. 



The Kingbird passes the winter in the 

 South and on his return journey toward 

 his breeding grounds reaches Louisiana, 

 according to Audubon, by the middle of 

 March, and the New England States about 

 the first of May. During the summer 

 they are scattered over almost the whole 

 continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 57th parallel of north latitude, where it was 

 observed by Sir John Richardson. Com- 

 mon along the Atlantic seabord, it is also 

 abundant on the great plains and in the 

 foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and pass- 

 ing west of these, occurs in some numbers 



