132 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



The bill of the adult male kingbird is broad at the base, 

 overhanging at the point, and notched and of a glossy black 

 color, and furnished with bristles at the base ; the eye is hazel ; 

 the plumage on the crown, though not forming a crest, is fre- 

 quently erected and shows a rich patch of orange or flame 

 color, but when the feathers lie close this is altogether con- 

 cealed; the head and tail are nearly black; the general color 

 above is a dark slaty ash ; the wings are more of a brownish 

 cast; the quills and wing coverts are white; the tail is even 

 at the end, and tipped with white ; the upper part of the breast 

 is tinged with ash ; the throat and all of the lower parts are 

 pure white ; the legs and feet are black, seamed with gray. 

 The adult female differs from the male in appearance in be- 

 ing more brownish in the upper parts, has a smaller streak of 

 paler orange on the crown, and a narrower border of duller 

 white on the tail. 



Of the migration of the kingbird, Mr. Wells W. Cooke in 

 his bulletin on the Distribution and Migration of North 

 American Warblers, says: "Its summer home from New- 

 foundland to British Columbia has a width of 2,800 miles ; 

 its paths of migration converge until in the southern United 

 States from southern Florida to the mouth of the Rio Grande 

 their total width' is 900 miles. Continuing southward, the 

 eastern edge of this path or belt appears to extend from south- 

 ern Florida to Yucatan, but the western edge is less sharply 

 defined ; few individuals of the species seem to travel west of 

 a line drawn from Corpus Christi to Tabasco. Thus in the 

 latitude of southern Yucatan the migration path is scarcely 

 400 miles wide, and the great bulk of the species probably 

 moves in a belt less than half this width." 



In the more southern parts of its breeding range, mating 

 and nidification begins about the middle of May, while in 

 northern New York and our Northwestern States they rarely 

 begin nesting before June. Their nests are usually built in a 

 tree near to a dwelling, or in an orchard or beside a field. For 

 many of the illustrations of this book I am indebted to my 

 friend Rev. Dr. Hiram W. Kellogg, who is a great lover of 

 the birds and a close student of nature. Many of the photo- 

 graphs were taken at Buzzard's Roost. Accompanying this 



