244 NOTES ON THE 
to the woodpeckers, warblers, &c. In capturing an insect, the 
kingbird dashes from his perch directly toward his game, till 
near it, when he hovers a moment before he takes it as if to 
decide whether it is the one he is looking for, but he generally 
decides very promptly that it is, and returns directly to his 
former perch, unless, as is often the case, his winged morsel 
has led him in a brief chase some distance from the former, 
when he will occupy another perch. His courage in attacking 
other birds, from a robin or a jay, to a crow, hawk or eagle, is 
without a peer among the birds of the country. The enemy 
seen, he ‘‘stays not on his going,” but bends every muscle to 
the flight. When near his foe, he rises above him, and pounces 
down upon his devoted head, as if expecting to annihilate him. 
How much suffering he may be able to inflict, is a question, but 
certain it is his enemy acts asif he shared his brave aggressor’s 
expectations, and turns and dives and dodges in all directions, 
until perhaps a mile away, the pugnacious little fellow leaves 
him with this practical hint that he need not come that way ~ 
again, at least while the breeding season lasts that year. 
He is the best of friends to the farmer and gardener, destroy- 
ing countless numbers of insects especially prejudicial to those 
industries. His habit of taking the honey bees that come in 
his way, which has made him enemies among the bee-culturists, 
will need no special apology in Minnesota until honey has be- 
come a larger interest, and then the thinking will have con- 
ceded his value too well to make it necessary. 
The kingbirds, already in their restricted families, gather 
into loose communities in the latter part of the summer, and 
mostly leave immediately after the frost appears, which 
diminishes their food supply to such an extent as to justify 
their departure to warmer climes in Mexico and Central 
America. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Two, sometimes three outer primaries abruptly attenuated 
at the end; second quill longest; third little shorter; first 
rather longer than fourth, or nearly equal. ‘Tail slightly 
rounded; above dark bluish-ash; the top and sides of the head 
to beneath the eyes bluish-black; a concealed crest on the 
crown, vermillion in the centre, white behind and before, par- 
tially mixed with orange; lower parts pure white, tinged with 
pale bluish-ash on the sides of the throat and across the 
breast; sides of the breast and under the wings similar to but 
rather lighter than the back; axillaries pale grayish brown 
tipped with lighter; the wings dark brown, darkest towards 
