Care of Young and Nest. 



103 



bird seemed dazed for a moment, and 

 stood gazing at the departing fly as if in 

 mute astonishment. 



Exciting scenes usually follow at the 

 nest of the Kingbird when a large dragon- 

 fly, cicada, or grampus is brought to the 

 family circle. The insect often struggles 

 hard, but escape is out of the question, 

 especially with both birds at the nest, who 

 at once begin to rend and crush it with 

 their bills. 



The male grampus (Corydalus corn- 

 utus) better known as the larval hellgamite 

 of which black bass are sometimes ex- 

 tremely fond, has long gray wings folded 

 back over the body when at rest, and the 

 head is armed with horns an inch long but 

 formidable only in their appearance. I 

 have seen these huge insects measuring four 

 inches from tip of the jaws to the extrem- 

 ities of the folded wings fed to a single 

 bird, and they were swallowed wings and 

 all. The operation is shown at an incom- 

 plete stage in one of the illustrations, 

 where the wings of the grampus can be 

 seen projecting an inch or more from the 

 mouth of the struggling bird. 



The cicada is even tougher and harder 

 to manage but is beaten into subjection, 

 and served up in a limp condition. Last 

 August, I witnessed a street combat be- 

 tween one of these cicadae and an House 

 Sparrow. The insect was bounding up 

 and down on the ground and sounding its 

 crescendo at an alarming rate, but unable 

 to avoid the blows which rained from the 

 Sparrow's bill. As the music of the dying 

 cicada finally ceased, the Sparrow picked 

 up his victim and bore it off to his brood. 



II. 



CLEANING THE NEST. 



The sanitary condition of the young 

 is a matter of great concern to most birds, 



Fig. 98. A common scene at this nest. The male brings 

 food, while his mate, who is brooding, receives it into her 

 own bill and passes it on to the children. 



Fig 99. The same brooding bird, with feathers erect and 

 throat inflated. 



