THE FLYCATCHING FAMILY 137 
This bird does much good by eating many 
insects. It is often said that he eats bees. But 
a curious thing has been found out about this 
habit. It seems he has a choice in bees. He is 
fond of the drones which make no honey, and so 
are not useful ina hive. He will hunt drones all 
day, but he is shy of a honey bee. Do you know 
why? The bird has not told us, but we can 
guess that it is because the honey bee is armed 
with a sting, and can make it very uncomfortable 
for any bird who catches her. | 
There is another reason too why the bird may 
prefer the drone. The honey bee usually flies 
low, where the flowers are, while the drone is n’t 
after flowers and flies higher in the air. The 
kingbird sits higher than the honey bee flies, 
and the drones are the ones that come near him. 
Another insect that the kingbird is fond of is 
the robber fly, which destroys hundreds of honey 
bees. That should make every bee-keeper his 
friend. 
These things have been found out in the way 
I told you, by shooting the birds to see what they 
had been eating. 
Mr. Bryant, who knows birds well, tells of a 
bee-keeper in California who saw a great many 
kingbirds among his bees. Of course he thought 
they were eating them, and he killed one hun- 
