308 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Their food consists of moths, butterflies, small winged insects 

 of various species common to their habitat, beetles and occa- 

 sionally honey bees, and their food is generally taken while on 

 the wing with the well known "snipping" sound made by the 

 bill. Individuals which have acquired a liking for the bee 

 diet will frequently take bee after bee as it alights heavily 

 laden on the lighting board of the hive, and I have proved 

 that worker bees are taken by actual examination of Kingbirds 

 shot after being seen at such an occupation. However the 

 actual damage to the bee industry is slight and more than 

 counterbalanced by the injurious insects taken. They also eat 

 some fruit, taking strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, choke 

 cherries, red cherries and other wild fruits, rarely taking culti- 

 vated fruit of the same sort. 



They have eggs during the first two or three weeks of June. 

 The incubation period is thirteen days, and the young are able 

 to leave the nest fifteen days after they are hatched. A nest 

 taken from an ash tree overhanging the water at Orono, June 

 15, 1894, was situated on top of a horizontal limb fourteen 

 feet from the water. This nest was composed of weed stems, 

 rootlets, twigs and twine, lined with rootlets and most nests 

 are very similarly constructed. This one was two and a half 

 inches in height outside, the cavity was one and three-fourths 

 inches deep, the outside diameter was six inches and the inside 

 diameter three inches. The four fresh eggs that it contained 

 measure 0.97 x 0.67, 0.94 x 0.68, 0.89 x 0.68, 0.92 x 0.70. 



Three to six eggs are laid but four or five is the more usual 

 number. These are white or pale creamy white, spotted with 

 chestnut, brown, cinnamon, rufous, umber and lavender. The 

 markings are generally grouped in a circular order about the 

 larger end, but occasionally eggs are dotted with finer mark- 

 ings over the entire surface and exceptionally I have seen eggs 

 with the circular wreath-like group of marks about the smaller 

 end of the egg. 



