38 BIRDS OF THE WEST 



KINGBIRD. 



This king is a tyrant if another bird gives consent. A better 

 name than kingbird would be "the bluffing flycatcher" for he is 

 king neither by right of regal beauty nor kingly manner. He is a 

 tantalizer of birds. 



Who has not seen him sally forth from his perch, tap some 

 passing bird upon the head and return? When we see him high 

 in the air in pursuit of a crow or a hawk, we smile to think that 

 those big birds are being whipped by the little kingbird, but they 

 hardly know that he is following them. They have business and 

 regard him about as you would a barking "black and tan." 



He always strikes from behind and never fights wing to wing. 

 If he would only attend to his business of eating bugs and 

 canker worms he would be a much beloved bird. Elany people 

 think that he eats bees and he does, but only the drones — except 

 when he makes the v»a-ong guess. It must be quite a trick to tell 

 a drone from a worker when they are in full flight. How in the 

 world do you suppose they do it? Some think it is due to keen 

 sight but I have often wondered if the buzzing of the drones is 

 not on a lower key and if it is not hearing rather than sight that 

 aids them. 



The male bird has a concealed crest that is rose-colored and 

 it is claimed for him that he throws the feathers of his head forward 

 when a bee approaches, thus ofl^ering him a sort of a milliner's 

 rose as a decoy. The bee makes a bee-line for it and finds a pair 

 of open jaws, thus supplying a dinner rather than getting one. 



When I was a little boy, my Sunday school teacher told me 

 that the birds were all called together soon after the dawn of 

 creation and told that the one that went highest into the air should 

 be king of the birds, so they all started upward together. One 

 after another, mud-hen, prairie chicken, sparrow, swallow and the 

 rest fell to the ground exhausted, leaving the old eagle apparently 

 the winner, when suddenly the kingbird that had concealed him- 

 self on the eagle's back shot upward and won the title. 



The principal inconsistency in this story is that the bee-bird 

 kept still long enough to fool the eagle, for he is an incessant chat- 

 terer. However, a little color is lent to the story, for he is forever 

 trying to get upon the backs of the big birds. 



