314 Bird -Lore 



Later, however, we saw three young sitting on the Hmbs near the nest, 

 where both the father and the mother often fed them. The tree stood not more 

 than twenty feet from the veranda of a summer club-house, 

 Family Cares where many people came three times a day for their meals. 

 Children and dogs romped about the place or sat on the bench 

 under the tree, but the Kingbirds never seemed disturbed, and the mother 

 brooded her eggs or young day by day, not fifteen feet above the ground. So 

 far as we could see, not once did she fly away on account of any of the strange 

 sights and sounds beneath her. 



If birds are undisturbed by their human neighbors they soon learn that no 

 one means to harm them, and often become very tame. We all have seen 

 many photographs of Chickadees, Bluebirds, and other small birds, that have 

 become so tame that they would alight on the shoulders or hat of a man or 

 woman who was kind to them. 



If one watches the Kingbird very long, he will notice that most of its time 

 seems to be occupied with hunting food. Birds have different ways of getting 

 the necessary things to eat. Thus, some wild ducks dabble in the mud; Wood- 

 peckers find food by searching crevices in the bark and wood of a tree ; King- 

 fishers dart into the waters of lakes and rivers to capture small fish; and 

 Herons wade in shallow water and spear prey with their long bills. The King- 

 bird uses none of these methods. Standing on the topmost branch of some small 

 tree, telegraph-pole, or barbed-wire fence, it will remain motionless, except 

 for frequently turning its head as it searches the air for passing insects. Sud- 

 denly it will dash out, sometimes a hundred feet or more, seize an insect, and 

 then return to its perch. 



Hidden by the dark feathers on the top of its head is a bright orange-red 

 spot. The Kingbird can open the feathers of its crown whenever it wishes to, 

 in such a way as to show this bright spot. It has been thought by some people 

 that the Kingbird does this to deceive insects into thinking that they have 

 discovered a flower where honey may be gathered. If true, this would be very 

 nice for the Kingbird, and no doubt would help it very much in getting a liv- 

 ing. Perhaps some member of a Junior Audubon Class, by watching one of 

 these birds, will discover whether or not this supposition is true. 



It is always well for us to know what our bird-friends eat. Kingbirds eat 



flies of many kinds. They also eat mosquitos, and, in fact, there is hardly an 



insect so unfortunate as to come within their reach that is not 



, g destroyed, for the sharp eye of the Kingbird is ever on the watch, 



and its strong bill seems never to tire of its work. I once knew 

 a man who paid his boy two cents for every Kingbird he shot. This man raised 

 bees, and he was perfectly sure that he often saw Kingbirds catch bees, as they 

 came across the garden to or from the beehives. So the boy shot the four 

 Kingbirds which lived around his father's place, and then went around the 

 neighborhood hunting for more Kingbirds, killing some as far as four miles 



