SONGLESS BIRDS. Kingbird 



Look at him as lie sits motionless on the top wire of the 

 fence, resting from an aerial excursion. It is easy to iden- 

 tify him, for his grays and blacks are so distinct and the clear 

 white tail band is decisive. Suddenly he dashes into the 

 air or courses above the ground and secures an insect with a 

 sharp snap of the beak, — a bee, perhaps, although the bees 

 that he captures are comparatively few, — and returns to the 

 precise spot from which he started. This is a habit peculiar 

 to the Flycatchers. I once watched a Kingbird for nearly 

 two hours, his point of vantage being a rail and wire fence 

 between low meadows, and, though he Avould sail many 

 hundred yards away, he always returned to his original 

 perch. If a Crow or Hawk appears ever so far in the dis- 

 tance, he gives his shrill alarm note and goes in instant 

 pursuit ; and I am sorry to say, that if Robins and smaller 

 song-birds venture too near his royal person, he will attack 

 them also, for he is a great bully. 



He does not seem, however, to care to cross swords with 

 the Catbird, not, perhaps, that he is absolutely afraid, but 

 he becomes suddenly near-sighted when that cunning 

 musician crosses his path. Dr. Abbott once tested the valour 

 of a particularly saucy Kingbird, by sending up a red and 

 yellow bird kite in the vicinity of its nest, pulling the kite 

 backward as the bird advanced and then when he was close 

 upon it slackening the string so that the Kingbird, unable 

 to check itself, plunged through the paper and bolted off in 

 a great fright, not returning for many hours. 



Kingbirds make most devoted parents, and the young 

 birds are delightful little things to watch as they develop 

 if you are as fortimate in finding a nestful as was Mrs. 

 Olive Thorne Miller, who has recorded their ways for all 

 bird-lovers present and future in her " Chronicle of Three 

 Little Kings." ^ 



Opinions differ as to the Kingbird's bee-destroying pro- 

 clivities, for which he received the name of Bee Martin; 

 neighbouring farmers even tell different stories, — one having 

 assured me that last year his hives were impoverished, 



1 " Little Brothers of the Air," p. 19. 

 183 



