ioo Bird Comrades 



It was a year or two later that I saw a scissor stall per- 

 forming his ablutions in the north western part of Arkansas. 

 How do you suppose he went about it? Not in the way 

 birds usually do, by squatting down in the shallow water, 

 twinkling their wings and tail, and sprinkling the liquid all 

 over 'their plumage. No; this bird has a reputation to 

 maintain for originality, and therefore he took his bath 

 in this manner: First he perched on a telegraph wire 

 by the roadside; then he swung gracefully down to a 

 little pond, dashed lightly into the water, giving himself 

 a slight wetting, after which he flew up to his original 

 perch on the wire. A minute or less was then spent in 

 preening his plumes ; but they were not moist enough to 

 suit his purpose, so he darted down to the pond again, 

 making the spray rise as he struck the water ; then up to 

 his perch he swung again, to arrange his feathers ; and 

 this was repeated a number of times, till his toilet was 

 completed. It would not -be safe to risk saying that the 

 scissorstail always takes his bath in this way; but I know 

 this one did. I once saw a kingbird doing the same 

 thing, and so it may be a fashion in flycatcher circles. 



I am minded, in order to make this monograph more 

 complete, to borrow a couple of paragraphs from Mrs. 

 Bailey's " Handbook of Birds of the Western United 

 States." She has studied the bird in the Southwest, 

 and gives the following graphic description of the bird 

 and its habits : 



"One of his favorite performances is to fly up and, 

 with rattling wings, execute an aerial seesaw, a line of 



