TYRANNUS CAROLINENSIS : KING-BIRD. I/ 



orchard or garden, or by the wayside, on a horizontal 

 bough or fork at a moderate distance from the ground, and 

 being bulky as well as openly situated, is as easily found 

 as that of a Robin. It is ragged and loose exteriorly, but 

 well cupped and brimmed, and may consist of twigs, 

 weedstalks, grasses, rootlets, leaves, moss and plant down, 

 with or without hair-lining, the soft, fluffy substance 

 being matted or felted together in an ingenious manner. 

 The eggs are usually four or five in number, and very 

 handsomely colored, being rich creamy-white, artistically 

 spotted and blotched with dark brown, light reddish- 

 brown, and lilac, chiefly in large bold pattern, the mark- 

 ings themselves sharp-edged and distinct, as well as 

 so heavy in color. The eggs are consequently not 

 likely to be mistaken for those of any other bird. 

 They measure about 1.00x0.75, being thus quite 

 rotund: but there is the usual variation in size and 

 shape. If one would realize the courage and pug- 

 nacity of this redoubtable bird, he has only to offer 

 to molest the freighted nest, and see with what vigor 

 and persistence with what outcry and at what risk of 

 danger the threatened invasion will be resisted, even 

 if ineffectually, by the devoted and determined parents. 

 But if no such misfortune happens, the brood is safely 

 hatched and reared ; and then one of the most pleasing 

 aspects of the King-bird's life is witnessed in the zealous 

 assiduity with which the young are encouraged to leave 

 the nest and taught to use their tremulous wings. These 

 duties and pleasures continue through the greater part 

 of the summer, and then there is a little period of com- 

 parative quiet in the camp before young and old alike, 

 with the failure of their supply of insect food, make off 

 for the South during the latter part of September. 



