AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 49 



HANDSOME SCISSOR^TAIL 



BY LEANDER S. KEYSER. 



In order to study the scissor-tailed fly- 

 catcher {Mihmlus forficatus,) of which some 

 friends had told me again and again in a glow 

 of enthusiasm, I made a trip to southern 

 Kansas and northern Oklahoma. Several 

 days passed before an individual of this 

 species^'put in appearance, as the scissor- 

 tails, which are migrants, were just returning from their 

 winter quartersjn a more southern clime, and so I had to 

 wait for their arrival. 



One day a friend and I were driving along a country 

 road over the broad prairie, when he exclaimed, "See 

 there! what bird is that?" Sure enough, a quaint bird 

 form went swinging from the wire fence by the road-side 

 toward a clump of willows in a shallow dip of the prairie. 

 Dashing after him, I heard a clear, musical call that pro- 

 claimed a bird with which I had not yet made acquaintance. 

 In a few moments he flew from the tree. My binocular 

 was fixed upon him as he went flitting across the field and 

 presently ahghted on the ground. It was the scissor- 

 tailed flycatcher, one of the most unique and handsome 

 birds belonging to our American avi-fauna, one that mer- 

 its more than a passing notice. To see him perched on a 

 fence or swinging gracefully through the air, and hear his 

 bell-like calls and whistles, makes you feel as if you were 

 suddenly transported to a foreign land, like Australia or 

 Borneo, where so many feathered curios are to be found. 

 In a fever of excitement I followed the beautiful bird, 

 which presently flew back to the fence by the roadside. 

 He flitted from point to point as my friend and I slowly 

 pursued him, giving us an exhibition of his scissoring pro- 

 cess. Sometim.es he would alight on a post, and then on 

 the barbed wire, usually sitting flat on his breast, when open the tail 

 is bi-colored, the outer border all around being white and the inner 

 black. The effect is quite picturesque. His general color is hoary ash, 

 paler or almost white below, giving out a slightdrridescence in the sun- 

 shine; his wings are blackish, with white trimmings; while his flanks are 

 washed with salmon-red, and when his wings are spread, there appears 



