184 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



a rich creamy white in color rather coarsely spotted with reddish brown, 

 chocolate and lavender, mostly in a wreath near the larger end. They 

 are oval in shape and measure I by .74 inches. The notes of the Kingbird 

 are loud, the commonest being a rapidly repeated rattling call resembling 

 remotely the rattle of a Kingfisher. The researches of the Biological 

 Survey have shown that their food consists principally of beetles, flies, 

 grasshoppers and members of the bee family. 



Tyrannus dominicensis (Gmelin) 

 Gray Kingbird 



Lanius dominicensis Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1788. i : 302 



Tyrannus dominicensis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 208. No. 445 



dominicensis, of St Domingo 



Description. Upper parts plumbeous gray. The adults have con- 

 cealed orange crown patch; lower parts white; tail emarginate, without a 

 white tip. 



Length 9-9.75 inches; wing 4.5-4.75; tail 3.5-4; bill large, length 

 from nostril .8. 



Distribution. The Gray kingbird is an inhabitant of the southeastern 

 United States from South Carolina to the Greater Antilles; winters in the 

 Lesser Antilles, Mexico and Central America. In New York it is only 

 an accidental visitant, a single specimen having been obtained at Seetauket, 

 Long Island, in Suffolk county, 30 miles east of New York and reported in 

 " Forest and Stream," volume 2, 1874, page 373. Specimens of this species 

 have been obtained similarly in Maine and New Jersey, but it rarely wanders 

 north of Carolina. 



Tyrannus verticalis Say 

 Arkansas Kingbird 



Tyrannus verticalis Say. Long's Exped. 1823. 2: 60 (note) 



A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 209. No. 447 



verticdlis, Lat., pertaining to vertex, the top or head, in allusion to the brilliant crown 

 patch of the adult 



Description. Head, neck and back light ashy gray; wings dusky 

 brown; tail black, the outer feathers with white outer webs; a concealed 



