FLY- CATCHES. 



evolutions to rid himself of his merciless adversary. 

 But the king bird is not so easily dismounted. He 

 teases the eagle incessantly, sweeps upon him from 

 right and left, remounts that he may descend on his 

 back with the greater violence, all the while keeping 

 up a shrill and rapid twittering, and continuing the 

 attack sometimes for more than a mile, till he is 

 relieved by some other of his tribe equally eager for 

 the contest. 



" There is one bird, however, which, by its superior 

 rapidity of flight, is sometimes more than a match for 

 him, and I have several times witnessed his pre- 

 cipitate retreat before this active antagonist. This is 

 the purple martin, one whose food and disposition is 

 pretty similar to his own, but who has greatly the 

 advantage of him on wing in eluding all his attacks 

 and teasing him as he pleases. I have also seen the 

 red-headed woodpecker, while clinging on a rail of 

 the fence, amuse himself with the violence of the 

 king bird, and play bo-peep with him round the rail, 

 while the latter, highly irritated, made every attempt, 

 as he swept from side to side, to strike him, but in 

 vain. All his turbulence, however, vanishes as soon 

 as his young are able to shift for themselves, and he 

 is then as mild and peaceable as any other bird. 



" But he has a worse habit than all these ; one 

 much more obnoxious to the husbandman, and often 

 fatal to himself. He loves, not the honey, but the 

 bees ; and it must be confessed, is frequently on the 

 look out for these little industrious insects. He 

 plants himself on the post of a fence, or on a small 

 tree in the garden, not far from the hives, and from 

 thence sallies on them as they pass and repass, 

 making great havoc among their numbers. His 

 shrill twitter, so near to the house, gives intimation 

 to the farmer of what is going on, and the gun soon 

 closes his career for ever. Man arrogates to himself, 

 in this case, the exclusive privilege of murder, and 

 after putting thousands of these same little insects to 

 death, seizes on the fruits of their labour. 



" The king birds arrive in Pennsylvania about the 

 20th of April, sometimes in small bodies of five and 

 six together, and are at first very silent, until they 

 begin to pair and build their nest. This generally 

 takes place about the first week in May. The nest 

 is very often built in the orchard, on the horizontal 

 branch of an apple tree ; frequently also, as Catesby 

 observes, on the sassafras tree, at no great height 

 from the ground. The outside consists of small 

 slender twigs, tops of withered flowers of the plant 

 yarrow, and others well wove together with tow ami 

 wool, and i* made large and remarkably firm and 

 compact. It is usually lined with fine dry fibrous 

 grass and horse hair. The eggs are five, of a very 

 pale cream colour or dull white, marked with a few 

 large spots of deep purple, and other smaller ones of 

 light brown, chiefly, though not altogether, towards 

 the great end. They generally build twice in the 

 season. 



" The king bird is altogether destitute of song, 

 having only the shrill twitter above mentioned. His 

 usual mode of flight is singular. The vibrations of 

 his broad wings, as he moves slowly over the fields, 

 resemble those of a hawk hovering and settling in the 

 air to reconnoitre the ground below, and the object 

 of the king bird is, no doubt, something similar viz., 

 to look out for passing insects, either in the air or 

 among the flowers and blossoms below him. In 

 fields of pasture he often takes his stand, on the tops 



507 



of the mullein, and other rank weeds near the cattle, 

 and makes occasional sweeps after passing insects, 

 particularly the large black gad-fly, so terrifying to 

 horses and cattle. His eye moves restlessly'around 

 him, traces the flight of an insect for a moment or 

 two, then that of a second, and even a third, until he 

 perceives one to his liking, when, with a sweep, 

 he pursues, seizes it, and returns to the same spot 

 again to look out for more. This habit is so con- 

 spicuous when he is watching the bee-hive, that 

 several intelligent farmers of my acquaintance are of 

 opinion that he picks out only the drones, and never 

 injures the working bees. Be this as it may, he cer- 

 tainly gives a preference to one bee, and one species 

 of insect over another. He hovers over the river 

 sometimes for a considerable time, darting after 

 insects that frequent such places, snatching them 

 from the surface of the water, and diving about in 

 the air like a swallow, for he possesses at will great 

 power of wing. Numbers of them are frequently 

 seen thus engaged for hours together over the inns 

 Delaware and Schuylkill in a calm day, particularly 

 towards evening. He bathes himself by diving 

 repeatedly into the water from the overhanging 

 branches of some tree, where he sits to dry and dress 

 his plumage. 



" Whatever antipathy may prevail against him for 

 depredations on the drones, or, if you will, on the 

 bees, I can assure the cultivator, that this bird is 

 greatly his friend, in destroying multitudes of insects, 

 whose larvae prey on the harvests of his fields, parti- 

 cularly his corn, fruit trees, cucumbers, and pump- 

 kins. These noxious insects are the daily food of 

 this bird ; and he destroys upon a very moderate 

 average, some hundreds of them daily. The death, 

 of every king bird is, therefore, an actual loss to the 

 farmer, by multiplying the numbers of destructive 

 insects, and encouraging the depredations of crows, 

 hawks, and eagles, who avoid as much as possible his 

 immediate vicinity. For myself, I must say, that the 

 king bird possesses no common share of my regard. 

 I honour this little bird for his extreme affection for 

 his young ; for his contempt of danger, and unexam- 

 pled intrepidity ; for his meekness of behaviour when 

 there are no calls on his courage, a quality which 

 even in the human race is justly considered so noble. 



" This bird is generally known from the Lakes to 

 Florida. Besides insects, they feed, like every other 

 species of their tribe with which I am acquainted, on 

 various sorts of berries, particularly blackberries, of 

 which they are extremely fond. Early in September 

 they leave Pennsylvania on their way to the south." 



This very interesting bird is about eight inches 

 long, and one foot two inches in the expanse of the 

 wings. The general colour on the upper part is dark 

 bluish ash, the head and tail being nearly black ; but 

 the tip of the tail is white, and it is square at the end. 

 The wings are brownish, with dull white margins to 

 the quills and coverts. The general colour on the 

 under part is pure white ; but the breast is pale ash 

 colour. The plumage on the top of the head, though 

 not forming a regular crest, is capable of being 

 erected ; and when it is so, it displays a rich tint of 

 flame colour ; and it is from this that the bird gets its 

 kingly name. The bill is of a black colour, very 

 broad, and with the tip of the upper mandible de- 

 scending over the under one, furnished with a lateral 

 notch, and beset with bristles at the base. The tarsi 

 and toes are black streaked with grey, and the irides 



