THE KING-BIRD. 129 
centre, white behind, and before partially mixed with orange; lower parts pure- 
white, tinged with pale pluish-ash on the sides of the throat and across the breast; 
sides of the breast and under the wings similar to, but rather lighter than, the back; 
axillaries pale grayish-brown tipped with lighter; the wings dark-brown, darkest 
towards the ends of the quills; the greater coverts and quills edged with white, 
most so on the tertials; the lesser coverts edged with paler; upper tail coverts 
and upper surface of the tail glossy-black, the latter very dark brown beneath; 
all the feathers tipped, and the exterior margined externally with white, form- 
ing a conspicuous terminal band about twenty-five one-hundredths of an inch 
broad. 
The young of the year is similar, the colors duller, the concealed colored patch 
on the crown wanting; the tail more rounded, the primaries not attenuated. 
Specimens vary in the amount of white margining the wing feathers; the upper 
tail coverts are also margined sometimes with white. 
Length, eight and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, four and sixty-five one- 
hundredths inches; tail, three and seventy one-hundredths inches; tarsus, seventy- 
five one-hundredths inches. 
HIS common species is abundantly distributed through- 
out New England as a summer resident. It arrives 
from the South about the 1st to the 10th of May: the males 
precede the females in small parties of three or four, the 
latter arriving about a week or ten days later. 
Soon after the arrival of the females, the males begin 
their attentions to them; and, as the season of courtship is 
comparatively short, the new-made couple soon begin their 
selection of a locality for their nest. This seems to be with 
them a rather difficult matter to settle ; for I have known of 
a pair remaining in an orchard a fortnight, examining every 
tree and its peculiar advantages, before they made a selec- 
tion. 
At last, when the location is decided, both birds com- 
mence work, and the nest is soon completed. It is usually 
placed on the branch of an apple or pear tree, in a small 
cluster of twigs or a crotch of a limb: it is constructed 
outwardly of coarse grasses, mosses, twigs, roots, and 
weeds; and is deeply hollowed, and lined with fine roots, 
horse-hairs, and grasses. About the Ist of June, the eggs 
are laid: these are usually five in number; their eround- 
color is a very delicate creamy-white, with irregular spatters 
and spots of different shades of brown, aud some obscure 
9 
