248 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH xVMERIGAN BIRDS. 



a consultation was evidently indulged in between the pair before the nest was 

 finally ready for occupation, a low twittering being kept up almost constantly. 

 It took just a week to Ijuild it, and an egg was deposited each morning after- 

 wards until the set, which consisted of four eggs, was completed. After 

 incubation had commenced, I noticed that the female left her eggs for an hour 

 or more at a time, during the middle of the day, when tlie sun was shining on 

 that part of the house, and. sat panting on the window sill or on a little cotton- 

 wood tree close by, keeping watch over her treasures. I also observed her 

 tmiiing the eggs over and rearranging them occasionally when she returned to 

 the nest. 



The nests of the Arkansas Kingbird vary gi-eatly in bulk and size accord- 

 ing to the situation, and are usually placed at no great height from the ground. 

 Generally they are compactly built structures, the foundation and outer walls 

 being composed of weed stems, fine twigs, plant fibers, and rootlets, intermixed 

 with wool, cocoons, hair, feathers, bits of string, cottonwood, milkweed, and 

 thistle down, or pieces of paper, and lined with finer materials of the same kind. 



A typical nest, No. 26036, United States National Museum collection, taken 

 by Mr. H. W. Heushaw, near St. Ysabel, California, measures 6 inches in outer 

 diameter by 3 in depth; the inner cup is 3 inches wide by If deep. It is princi- 

 pally composed of the stalks of Stylodine aruonica and Micropus caUforuicus, 

 mixed and luied with cocoons and a little down. 



Nidification, even in the more southern parts of their range, rarely com- 

 mences much before the middle of May, more generally during June, and near 

 the northern limits not before the first week in July. From three to five eggs are 

 laid to a set, four being the usual number. I have taken two sets of fi\e each 

 near Fort Walla Walla, Washington, but such large sets are rather i-are. Incu- 

 bation lasts from twelve to thirteen days; this duty is mostly performed l)y the 

 female, but I have also seen the male on the nest, and he can generally be 

 observed close by, on the lookout for danger. Both parents are exceedingly 

 courageous in the defense of their nest and young, and every bird of this species 

 in the neighborhood will (juickly come to the rescue and help to drive intruders 

 off as soon as one gives the alarm. The young grow rapidly and are able to 

 leave the nest in about two weeks. They consume an immense amount of food, 

 certainly fully their own weight in a day. I have often watched the family 

 previously referred to, raised on the sill of my attic window, and also fed them 

 with the Ijodies of the large black crickets while one of the parents was looking 

 on, and apparently approvinglv, within a few feet of me. I have stuffed them 

 until it seemed impossible for them to liold any more, l)ut tliere was no satisfying 

 them; it certainly keeps the parents busy from early morning till late at night to 

 su|)plv their always hungry family. They are readily tamed when taken young, 

 and are very intelligent, making interesting pets. I belicAe that only one brood, 

 as a rule, is raised in a season, excepting possibly in the extreme southeiii 

 portions of their range, in southern Arizona and California, as I found fresh eggs 

 on llillito Creek, near Tucson, as late as Julv 20, in a localitv where these birds 



