A HANDSOME SCISSORSTAIL* 



IN order to study the scissorstailed flycatcher (Milvulus 

 forficatus), of which some friends had told me. again 

 and again in a glow of enthusiasm, I made a trip to 

 southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. Several days 

 passed before an individual of this species put in appear- 

 ance, as the scissorstails, which are migrants, had not yet 

 returned from their winter quarters in a more southern 

 clime, and so I had to wait for their arrival. 



One day a friend and I were driving along a country 

 road over the prairie, when a quaint bird form went 

 swinging from the wire fence by the roadside toward 

 a clump of willows in a shallow dip of the prairie. Dash- 

 ing after him, I heard a clear, musical call that proclaimed 

 a bird with which I had not yet become acquainted. 4 



In a few moments he flew from the tree. My binocular 

 was fixed upon him as he went flitting across the field 

 and presently alighted on the ground. My surmise was 

 correct; it was the scissorstail flycatcher, one of the most 

 unique and handsome birds belonging to our American 

 avifauna, one that merits more than a passing notice. 

 To see him perched on a fence, or swinging gracefully 

 through the air, and hear his bell-like calls and whistles 



*Reprinted by permission from "American Ornithology," with important additions. 



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