WOOD PEWEE. 85 



voracious appetites of their infants were satisfied. 

 DeKay says of the kingbird's diet : " He feeds 

 on berries and seeds, beetles, canker-worms, and 

 insects of every description. By this, and by his 

 inveterate hostility to rapacious birds, he more 

 than compensates for the few domestic bees with 

 which he varies his repast." To this DeKay adds 

 the interesting statement : " Like the hawks and 

 owls, he ejects from his mouth, in the shape of 

 large pellets, all the indigestible parts of insects 

 and berries." 



XXIII. 



WOOD PEWEE. 



IN size, coloring, and habit you will hardly dis- 

 tinguish the wood pewee from the phoebe, al- 

 though* the former is somewhat smaller. These 

 two birds stand apart from all the others we have 

 had. The chimney swift and barn swallow also 

 live on insects, but measure the difference in their 

 methods of hunting. The swift zigzags through 

 the air, picking up his dinner as he goes; the 

 swallow skims the rivers, and circles over the 

 meadows and through the sky, without so much 

 as an ungraceful turn of the wing to suggest that 

 he is dining. But the pho3be and the wood pe- 

 wee lie in wait for their victims. They cunningly 

 assume indifference until the unwary gauzy-wing 

 floats within range, then spring on it, snap it up, 

 and fall back to wait for another unfortunate. 



