BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 189 



that the King-bird had a minnow not less than three inches long. I con- 

 tinued my observations for about fifteen minutes, and during that time 

 these birds caught several small minnows and ate them." Notwithstand- 

 ing the benefits which this bird confers, destroying, as Dr. Coues re- 

 marks, a thousand noxious insects for every bee it eats, many farmers 

 and others who keep honey-bees, are ever ready to slay every Kingbird 

 which visits their premises. Although it is believed by some that these 

 birds take only drone bees, such is not the case, as I have found both 

 drone and working-bees in their stomachs; Mr. Gentry, also, in speaking 

 of the bee-eating habit states that the Kingbird is no respecter of kinds. 

 Nuttall writing of this bird says : As insects approach him, or as he 

 darts after them, the snapping of his bill is heard, like the shutting of 

 a watch-case, and is the certain grave of his prey. Beetles, grasshoppers, 

 crickets and winged insects of all descriptions form his principal sum- 

 mer food ; at times canker worms from the elm are also collected. To- 

 wards autumn, as various kinds of berries ripen, these constitute a very 

 considerable and favorite part of his subsistence ; but, with the excep- 

 tion of currants (of which he only eats perhaps when confined), he re- 

 fuses all exotic productions, contenting himself with blackberries, 

 whortleberries, those of the sassafras, elder and poke. The same writer 

 further says : "Raisins, foreign currants, grapes, cherries, peaches, peal's 

 and apples were never even tasted, when offered to a bird of this kind, 

 which I had many months as my pensioner ; of the last when roasted, 

 sometimes, however, a few mouthfuls were relished, in the absence of 

 other more agreeable diet. Berries he always swallowed whole, grass- 

 hoppers, if too large, were pounded and broken on the floor, as he held 

 them in his bill. To manage the larger beetles was not so easy ; these 

 he struck repeatedly against the ground and then turned them from side 

 to side, by throwing them dexterously into the air, and the insect was 

 uniformly caught reversed as it descended, with the agility of a practiced 

 cup-and-ball player. At length the pieces of the beetle were swallowed, 

 and he remained still to digest his morsel, tasting it distinctly soon after 

 it entered the stomach, as became obvious by the ruminating motion of 

 his mandibles. When the soluble portion was taken up, large pellets of 

 the indigestible legs, wings and shells, as likewise the skins and seeds 

 of berries, were, in half an hour or less, brought up and ejected from the 

 mouth in the manner of hawks and owls. When other food failed, he 

 appeared very well satisfied with fresh minced meat, and drank water 

 frequently, even during the severe frosts of January. * * * Some 

 very cold evenings he had the sagacity to retire under the shelter of a 

 depending bed-quilt." The few examinations which I have made are 

 given in the following table : 



