134 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, spiders, wild bees, wasps and 

 millipods. I have said that the kingbird is sometimes called 

 the bee-bird and bee martin. This comes of the fact that 

 it has been accused of being a bee robber. Upon this subject 

 Professor Beal's report shows that of 281 stomachs examined 

 by him only 14 contained the remains of honey bees. In these 

 were 50 honey bees, 40 of which were drones ; 4 certainly were 

 workers ; of 6 he was not certain. The stomachs examined 

 contained 19 robber-flies, an insect injurious to bees, and more 

 than an equivalent for the worker bees eaten. It is said that 

 the kingbird ejects in pellets the indigestible portions of its 

 food, such as the wing covers of beetles, the legs of grasshop- 

 pers and the seeds of berries. 



The common name, tyrant flycatcher, and the scientific 

 name, tyrannus tyrannus, of the kingbird was given to it be- 

 cause of the fact that it fights and tyrannizes over other birds. 

 This is true only as to a limited number of birds. It does 

 fight the hawks, eagles, crows and jays. I have never seen it 

 fighting any others, except the red-headed woodpecker, and it 

 exceptionally. As I have said, we have had a pair of these 

 birds with us at Somerleaze for several years. In 1904 they 

 built their nest in an elm which stands close to our summer 

 home. In this tree a pair of scarlet tanagers and of English 

 sparrows also had their nests within a few feet of that of the 

 kingbirds, and so far as I was able to see they all lived to- 

 gether harmoniously. But this same pair of kingbirds fought 

 the crows ferociously. The crows had only to come within 

 sight during the nesting season to be attacked by these mites. 

 I have seen them pursue the crows, overtake them, pick at 

 their eyes, pull out their feathers, and prod them beneath until 

 they were almost exhausted. At Buzzard's Roost on a Sep- 

 tember day I saw two of them pursuing three crows over- 

 head and down Fall Creek. The crows tried hard and in vain 

 to turn aside into the timber on both sides of the stream, but 

 the kingbirds would not let them do it. If the crows turned 

 to either side, the kingbirds instantly were on that side and 

 between them and the timber, compelling them to change their 

 course, and thus they pursued them and perscuted them for a 

 mile or more. It is evident that these birds attack and pur- 



