AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE. 91 



One of the birds that nested in the trees by 

 the ranch-house was the bee-bird, who was soft 

 gray above and delicate yellow below, instead of 

 dark gray above and shining white below, like his 

 eastern relative, the kingbird. The birds used 

 to perch on the bare oak limbs, flycatching. It 

 was interesting to watch them. They would fly 

 obliquely into the air and then turn, with bills 

 bristling with insects, and sail down on out- 

 stretched wings, their square tails set so that the 

 white outer feathers showed to as good advantage 

 as the white border of the kingbird's does in sim- 

 ilar flights. They made a bulky untidy nest in 

 the oaks by the barn, using a quantity of string 

 borrowed from the ranchman. Their voices were 

 high-keyed and shrill with an impatient emphasis, 

 and at a distance suggested the shrill yelping of 

 the coyote. Kee'-ah, kee-hee' kee'-ah, they would 

 cry. The wolves were so often heard around the 

 ranch-house that in the early morning I have 

 sometimes mistaken the birds for them. 



One of the favorite hunting-grounds of the bee- 

 ts o 



birds was the orchard, where they must have done 

 a great deal of good destroying insects. They 

 were quarrelsome birds, and were often seen fall- 

 ing through the air fighting vigorously. I saw 

 one chase a sparrow hawk and press it so hard 

 that the hawk cried out lustily. The ranchman's 

 son told me of one bee-bird who defended his 

 nest with his life. Two crows lit in a tree where 



