Kingbird. 65 



KINGBIED. 



Few birds are better known to the boys and girls 

 whose homes are amid rural surroundings, than the noisy 

 and pugnacious kingbird. The orchard is his little 

 kingdom, and over it he exerts a regal sway. With most 

 of his subjects he is roughly good-natured, but he is 

 extremely jealous of his prerogatives, and does not hesitate 

 to support his pretensions with a goodly show of force. 

 Trespassers upon his territory are caused to regret their 

 temerity, especially those which insolently depend upon 

 their superior size for immunity from his attacks. Few 

 enemies of his are so large that they can dismay this bold 

 defender of his domains, and his impetuous assault is 

 certain to overwhelm either hawk, crow, owl, blue jay, or 

 other evil-minded intruder upon his claimed limits. 



The kingbird prefers to fight on the defensive. Seeing 

 an approaching enemy, he sallies forth from his watch- 

 tower in the summit of an apple-tree, and engages in 

 battle in mid-air. Quickly gaining an advantage by 

 mounting above the unlucky crow or hawk, he fiercely 

 dashes downward upon the back or head of his adver- 

 sary ; and striking with his stout, sharp bill, flutters away 

 and upward to continue the attack. The intrepidity and 

 sharpness of his attack are likely to dishearten even 

 bolder birds than those he usually quarrels with, and the 

 result of the encounter, if such a one-sided affair can 

 rightly be called by that name, is seldom in doubt for 

 even a moment. He does not commonly attack his 

 enemy at rest, nor does he often pursue the object of his 

 animosity very far, being satisfied when he has driven 

 the ofl'ender beyond the limits of the orchard or yard in 

 which the kingbird has taken up his quarters. 



The pugnacity of the kingbird is accounted for by 

 most writers on the ground of strong maternal instinct. 

 My observations, however, lead me to say that his over- 

 bearing spirit is apparent at all times. Late in the 

 summer, when the nesting season had passed, I once saw 

 a kingbird, which was seated on a telegraph wire, mali- 

 ciously attack a robin that alighted on a wire more than 

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