THE ARKANSAS KINGBIRD. 



NE of the difficulties of the 

 scientific ornithologist is to 

 differentiate species. This 

 bird is often confounded 

 with the Flycatchers, and 

 for a very good reason, its habits being 

 similar to those of that family. It is 

 almost a counterpart of the Kingbird, 

 (See Birds, vol. ii, p. 157) possessing 

 a harsher voice, a stronger flight, and, 

 if possible, a more combative, pugna- 

 cious spirit. It is a summer resident, 

 is common in the western United 

 States, and occasionally a straggler 

 far eastward, migrating southward in 

 winter to Guatemala. 



Col. Goss, in his history of the birds 

 of Kansas, one of the most compre- 

 hensive and valuable books ever pub- 

 lished on ornithology, says that the 

 nesting places and eggs of this species 

 are essentially the same as those of 

 the Kingbird. They are brave and 

 audacious in their attacks upon the 

 birds of prey and others intruding upon 

 their nesting grounds. Their com- 

 bative spirit, however, does not con- 

 tinue beyond the breeding season. 

 They arrive about the first of May, 

 begin laying about the middle of that 

 month, and return south in September. 

 The female is smaller than the male 

 and her plumage is much plainer. 



Mr. Keyser " In Birdland " tells an 

 interesting story which illustrates one 

 of the well known characteristics of 

 the Kingbird. " One day in spring," 

 he says, " I was witness to a curious 

 incident. A Red-headed Woodpecker 



had been flying several times in and 

 out of a hole in a tree where he (or 

 she) had a nest. At length, when he 

 remained within the cavity for some 

 minutes, I stepped to the tree and 

 rapped on the trunk with my 

 cane. The bird bolted like a small 

 cannon ball from the orifice, 

 wheeled around the tree with a 

 swiftness that the eye could scarcely 

 follow, and then dashed up the lane to 

 an orchard a short distance away. But 

 he had only leaped out of the frying- 

 pan into the fire. In the orchard he 

 had unconsciously got too near a King- 

 bird's nest. The Kingbird swooped 

 toward him and alighted on his back. 

 The next moment the two birds, the 

 Kingbird on the Woodpecker's back, 

 went racing across the meadow like a 

 streak of zigzag lightning, making a 

 clatter that frightened every echo from 

 its hiding place. That gamy Fly- 

 catcher actually clung to the Wood- 

 pecker's back until he reached the 

 other end of the meadow. I can- 

 not be sure, but he seemed to be hold- 

 ing to the Woodpecker's dorsal feathers 

 with his bill. Then, bantam fellow 

 that he was, he dashed back to the 

 orchard with a loud chippering of 

 exultation. ' Ah, ha ! ' he flung 

 across to the blushing Woodpecker, 

 ' stay away the next time, if you don't 

 fancy being converted into a beast of 

 burden ? " 



Eggs three to six, usually four, 

 white to creamy white, thinly spotted 

 with purple to dark reddish brown, 

 varying greatly in size. 



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