96 Bird Comrades 



himself makes a handsome picture on the wing, and 

 when you come to mix up a scissorstail and a shrike in 

 inextricable confusion, you have a feathery display worth 

 seeing. 



Nor was that the end of the exhibition, for in a moment 

 a second scissorstail, the precise facsimile of the first, 

 appeared from somewhere, and the two flycatchers com- 

 bined against their enemy. Then for a few minutes there 

 was such a chaos of shrike and scissorstail that we could 

 scarcely tell which was which. By and by the shrike 

 wheeled away, when, as if to bring the gladiatorial show 

 to a climax, the scissorstails engaged in a set-to that was 

 really wonderful, coming together in the air, whirling 

 around and around, rising in a spiral course, opening and 

 closing their beautiful forked tails in quick succession, 

 the black and white trimmings flashing momentarily, 

 then disappearing, until the contestants finally descended, 

 parted in the most graceful manner, and alighted on 

 separate fence posts, none the worse for their melee. 



In the evening I returned to the enchanted spot, but 

 the scissorstails had disappeared. Not having had my 

 fill of these charmers, I stopped, on my return home, for 

 a day at Wellington, Kansas, where I was so fortunate as 

 to find three birds of this species, who permitted me to 

 watch them to my heart's content. They are not shy 

 birds, but fly in a graceful, leisurely way from post to 

 post along the fence as you walk or drive, sometimes 

 sitting quietly to let you pass by. In this respect their 

 habits are much like those of their cousin, the kingbird. 



