XII 

 FLYCATCHERS 



KINGBIRD 



July 16, 1851. I hear the kingbird twittering or chat- 

 tering like a stout-chested swallow. 



May 29, 1853. How still the hot noon ! People have 

 retired behind blinds. Yet the kingbird — lively bird, 

 with white belly and tail edged with white, and with 

 its lively twittering — stirs and keeps the air brisk. 



June 2, 1854. Are these not kingbird days, when, in 

 clearer first June days full of light, this aerial, twitter- 

 ing bird flutters from willow to willow and swings on 

 the twigs, showing his white-edged tail? 



June 5, 1854. I see at a distance a kingbird or black- 

 bird pursuing a crow lower down the hill, like a satel- 

 lite revolving about a black planet. 



June 14, 1855. A kingbird's nest with four eggs on 

 a large horizontal stem or trunk of a black willow, four 

 feet high, over the edge of the river, amid small shoots 

 from the willow ; outside of niikania, roots, and knotty 

 sedge, well lined with root-fibres and wiry weeds. 



Jan. 2(J, 1856. A probable kingbird's nest, on a small 

 horizontal branch of a young swamp white oak, amid 

 the twigs, about ten feet from ground. This tree is very 

 scraggy ; has numerous short twigs at various angles 

 with tlie branches, making it unpleasant to climb and 

 affording support to birds' nests. The nest is round, 



