100 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



ern parts of the Union. The circumstance enforced upon me the propriety of 

 never suffering an opportunity of acquiring knowledge to pass, and of never im- 

 agining for a moment that another may not know something that has escaped 

 your attention. 



Since that time, three years have elapsed. The birds have regularly returned 

 every spring to the College yard, and have there reared, in peace, two broods 

 each season, having been admired and respected by the collegians, after they were 

 apprised that the species had not previously been found in the State. 



Since Audubon wrote, I have been the next observer who has 

 seen and taken this rare species in the State, and herewith tran- 

 scribe the account of the capture that I published in the Auk:^ 



In the early part of May, 1885, Mr. AVilliam Brewster and myself saw a pair 

 of Gray Kingbirds at Fort Moultrie, SuUivan's Island, S. C. I determined to 

 secure these birds with their nest and eggs, and after several visits to the Island 

 I located their range, and on May 28, I found their nest which contained one 

 egg and shot the female bird. The nest was built in a silver-leaf poplar, in a 

 gentleman's yard (Major W. J. Gayer), only a few feet from his dwelling house. 

 The nest, as I remember it, was very frail. Since that date of capture I have failed 

 to notice the presence of this species on any of the coast islands of South Carolina, 

 until this year, 1893. 



On May 30 of this year, I determined to search Sullivan's Island carefully for 

 this rare visitor, and accordingly I arrived there early in the morning of the above 

 date. After walking the entire length of the Island near the front beach, and 

 having failed to discover this species, I leisurely searched the back beach. At 

 twelve 'clock — mid-day — a bird I saw flying about three lumdred yards away I took 

 to be this species. I followed the direction of its flight until it was lost to view — over 

 half a mile away. I at once hastened to the spot, and to my delight found a veri- 

 table Gray Kingbird perched on the top of a flag pole about fifty feet high in a 

 private yard. The law on the Island prohibits shooting, under penalty of $10.00 

 fine. My only chance was for the bird to light on the Government property — 

 Fort Moultrie grounds — six yards away, where I could not be molested. I did not 

 have long to wait before the male which was perched on the flag pole flew into the 

 Government lands where I at once shot it. Upon my shooting the bird its mate 

 flew directly over me, and I soon had it stored carefully away in my collecting 

 basket. The nest which was found in the private yard, close to the flag pole, was 

 built in the top of a small live oak tree about twenty feet high. It is a very frail 

 structure, and is composed of sticks, jesamine vines, and lined apparently with 

 oleander rootlets. One article in its composition which is quite curious is a long 

 piece of fishing cord. The nest contained two eggs, andupon dissecting the female 

 I found one more egg which would have been laid the following day. It will be 

 seen that all the specimens of the Gray Kingbird which have been actually taken in 

 South Carolina were from this famous Island — a favorite summer resort for the 

 people of Charleston. 



Since I recorded the capture of these birds in the Auk I have 

 failed to observe additional specimens. 



The eggs of this species are of a creamy or pinkish color, spot- 

 ted and blotched with reddish brown and lilac, and are said to 

 number three or four. They measure l.OOX.75. 



The Gray Kingbird breeds along the coast from South Caro- 

 lina (rarely) southward through Georgia (rarely) , Florida (abund- 

 antly), and the Greater Antilles. 



iXI, 1894, 178-179. 



