176 



THE KING-BIRD, OR TYRANT FLT-CATCHER. 



THE KING- BIRD, OR TYRANT FLY-CATCHER. 



This well known, remarkable and pugnacious bird takes up its 



summer residence in 

 all the intermediate 

 region, from the 

 temperate parts of 

 Mexico to the unin- 

 habited and remote 

 interior of Canada. 

 Jn all this vast 

 geographical range 

 the King-bird seeks 

 his food and rears 

 his young. Accord- 

 ing to A u d u b o n, 

 they appear in 

 Louisiana by the 

 middle of March, 

 and about the 20th 

 of April, Wilson re- 

 marked their arrival 

 in Pennsylvania in 

 small parties of five 

 or six ; but they are 

 very seldom seen in 

 Massachusetts b e- 

 fore the middle of 

 May. They are now 

 silent and peaceable, 

 until they b^gin to pair, and form their nests, which takes place from 

 the first to the last week in May, or early in June, according to the 

 advancement of the season in the latitudes of forty and forty-three 

 degrees. The nest is usually built in the orchard, on the horizontal 

 branch of an apple or pear tree, sometimes in an oak, in the adjoining 

 forest, at various heights from the ground, seldom carefully concealed, 

 and firmly fixed at the bottom to the supporting twigs of the branch. 

 The outside consists of course stalks of dead grass and wiry weeds, 

 the whole well connected and bedded with cut- weed, down, tow, or 

 an occasional rope-yarn, and wool; it is then lined with dry, slender 

 grass, root fibres, and horsehair. The eggs are generally three to 

 five, yellowish-white, and marked with a few large, well defined spots 

 of deep and bright brown. They often build and hatch twice in the 

 season. 



Like the swallow, they drink and bathe whilst on the wing, invari- 

 ably perching upon a neighbouring tree, the better to dry their plumage. 

 The Tyrant Shrikes quit the United States before any other of the 

 feathered summer visitors, and prosecute their migrations by night as 



TYRANT FLT-CATCHER, OR KINO-BIRD. 



