THE PERCHING BIRDS. 113 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE PERCHING BIRDS. (Concluded?) 



THE first of the several groups to be considered 

 in this chapter is that important one, the Tyrant 

 Flycatchers. The very name suggests a lively time, 

 and I certainly never saw a lazy bird among them. 

 They are fly-catchers, not fly-hunters, and it is the 

 insect on the wing that concerns them more than the 

 crawling slug down in the dirt. These birds are 

 divided by ornithologists into eleven genera, and, of 

 course, there are many species, but I think that the 

 general family likeness is so pronounced that no one 

 will be likely to confound them with birds of other 

 families. Some of them are beautifully colored, but 

 in the United States the great majority have neither 

 color nor voice to commend them. They are prac- 

 tical birds, eminently useful rather than ornamental. 



The most beautiful of these birds are two species 

 that are distinguished by their long forked tails and 

 light, gray-white, pink, and yellow coloration. The 

 Fork-tailed Flycatcher is said to be " accidental" to 

 Mississippi, Kentucky, and New Jersey, and the 

 Scissor-tailed is a real resident of our territory, keep- 

 ing closely to the Southwest, but occasionally going 

 so far from home as British America. 



Of Kingbirds proper there are five species, and 

 they do not differ much among themselves. Every 

 A 10* 



