130 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



spots of lavender. Dimensions of a nest complement of 

 five eggs : 1.06 by .71 inch ; 1.04 by .70 inch ; 1.02 by .72 

 inch ; 1 by .74 inch ; and .94 by .75 inch. 



During the mating and breeding season, the pugnacity 

 and courage of the Kiiig-bird are proverbial: if any bird 

 approach the neighborhood of his nest, he immediately 

 attacks it; and, whether crow (his particular dislike), 

 hawk, or eagle, the intruder is obliged to flee, so fierce an 

 onslaught does this little warrior make on him. As soon 

 as the cry of a crow is heard, he is all activity : he flies 

 Irom the tree where he is perching to reconnoitre, uttering 

 his shrill twitter, and vibrating his wings in short, quick, 

 nervous strokes ; as soon as the crow appears, the King- 

 bird pursues it, his flight now being very swift and powerful. 

 As soon as he nears his foe, he flies above him, and, dart- 

 ing down on his back and head, attacks him with such 

 vigor that the crow dives and dodges to avoid him. He 

 repeats his attack, and follows his enemy, sometimes to the 

 distance of a mile and more : then, returning to his mate, 

 he perches on the tree by her nest, and twitters a volley of 

 courageous songs. 



The food of the King-bird consists principally of insects, 

 which he captures usually while on the wing. It seems a 

 provision of nature, that all the Flycatchers shall only take 

 those insects that have taken flight from the foliage of trees 

 and shrubs, at the same time making the warblers and 

 other birds capture those which remain concealed in such 

 places. The King-bird, in seizing a flying insect, flies in a 

 sort of half-flitting hover, and seizes it with a sharp snap 

 of the bill. Sometimes he descends from his perch, and 

 captures a grasshopper that has just taken a short flight, 

 and occasionally seizes one that is crawling up some tall 

 stalk of grass. Those farmers who keep bees dislike 

 this bird because of his bad habit of eating as many 

 of those insects as show themselves in the neighborhood 

 of his nest ; but they should remember that the general 



