l6 TYRANNIES I FLYCATCHERS. 



mating season few birds, if any, make more noise than 

 the King-bird, and none are more restless, some un- 

 easy spirit seeming to urge this valiant knight to inces- 

 sant deeds of daring, till one might fancy it ready to tilt 

 against a windmill if nothing else offered. After the 

 animated contests of the pairing season, when several 

 ambitious males, with questionable judgment, quarrel for 

 the privilege of securing a vixenish partner, after 

 these tournaments are over, one would think that peace 

 might reign ; but the King-bird's life is mostly passed in 

 guerilla warfare with every bird that ventures too near, 

 even if it be a Crow, Hawk or Owl, many times its 

 superior in all things excepting audacity. Brooking no 

 intrusion or division of kingdom, the courageous bird 

 deserves its title, and by right of conquest wears the 

 insignia of royalty, tyrant by name and nature, and 

 literally crowned with fire, kindled in the alembic of an 

 ardent heart. 



Being exclusively insectivorous, like all of its tribe, the 

 King-bird must enter and leave New England with the 

 appearance and disappearance of the winged hosts upon 

 which it preys. Occasionally, an avant-courier is seen 

 in April, and even by the middle of that month ; but it is 

 usually the first or second week in May when the dashing 

 bird begins to sound shrill challenge and display its 

 flaming crest, with defiant shaking of its feathery lance. 

 Great numbers press after ; the quota is soon filled ; and 

 no sooner is the migration finished than pairing and nest- 

 ing commence with all the pomp and circumstance I 

 have described. The fabric is generally completed by 

 the first of June ; and the situations chosen for the nest 

 are such that few specimens of bird-architecture are 

 more exposed to public view. It is usually placed in an 



