PROFESSIONAL FLY-CATCHING 



inch-focus doublet, and an aperture of the curtain of 

 about an inch and a half, with a moderate speed. 

 Taking the bird perched upon a branch, one can thus 

 get a good large image with plenty of detail in bright 

 sunlight. 



The Kingbird gets its name from its pugnacious ways 

 when it must stand for its rights. It does not, however, 

 bully other birds without good reason; yet, when it 

 decides to assert itself, it is usually able to enforce its 

 simple requirement that the undesirable intruder shall 

 "get out." It has fighting blood in its veins, for all the 

 other species of this distinct and interesting order of 

 flycatchers are good fighters. Their main business is 

 to catch flying insects, and they all have their art down 

 to a fine point. Their method is different from that 

 of the swallows, for instead of keeping long a-wing, as 

 the latter, the true "flycatcher" stations itself on some 

 perch which commands a view, like a hawk, dashes to 

 catch the unwary insect; and returns at once to its 

 observatory. Various other birds dart after flying 

 insects, but have other means of livelihood, while the 

 "flycatcher" confines itself largely to this one way. 



We have another "Tyrant Flycatcher," which prob- 

 ably is equally tyrannical with the bird that bears the 

 royal name the Crested Flycatcher. Few people 

 know it, for it is rather scarce and very shy. Though 

 it generally chooses orchards for residence, it prefers 

 those that are abandoned or off from houses, at the edge 

 of the woods. Even there it is rather hard to see the 



128 



