406 TYRANT FLY-CATCHER. 



The King Bird leaves the Middle States earlier than most other spe- 

 cies. While migrating southwards, at the approach of winter, it flies 

 with a strong and continued motion, flapping its wings six or seven times 

 pretty rapidly, and saihng for a few yards without any undulations, at 

 every cessation of the flappings. On the first days of September, I have 

 several times observed them passing in this manner, in detached parties 

 of twenty or thirty, perfectly silent, and so resembling the Twdus mi- 

 gratorhis in their mode of flight, as to induce the looker-on to suppose 

 them of that species, until he recognises them by their inferior size. 

 Their flight is continued through the night, and by the 1st of October 

 none are to be found in the Middle States. The young acquire the full 

 colouring of their plumage before they leave us for the south. 



The flesh of this bird is delicate and savoury. Many are shot along 

 the Mississippi, not because these birds eat bees, but because the French 

 of Louisiana are fond of bee-eaters. I have seen some of these birds that 

 had the shafts of the tail-feathers reaching a quarter of an inch beyond 

 the end of the webs. 



I have placed a male and a female Field Martin on a twig of the Cot- 

 ton-wood Tree. This plant is very appropriate!}) named, for not only 

 are the grape-like bunches of seeds filled with a beautiful soft cottony 

 substance, but the wood can scarcely be sawed on account of the looseness 

 of its inner fibres. It grows to a great height and size, particularly 

 along the shores of the Mississippi and Ohio, and in all alluvial grounds 

 to the west of the Alleghany Mountains. It is principally used for fire- 

 wood and fence-rails, but is of indiff^erent quality for either purpose. 



MuscicAPA TYRANNUS, Briss. vol. ii. p. 391. — C'h. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the 



United States, p. 66. 



Lanius TYRANNUS, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 13C Lath. Ind. Ornitli. vol. i. p. 81. 



Tyrant Shrike, La^A. Synops. vol. i. p. 184. 



Tyrant Fly-catcher, Muscicapa tyrannus, IVils. Amer. Omith. vol.i i. p. 66. 



PI. 13. fig. 1. 



Adult Male. Plate LXXIX. Fig. 1. 



Bill of moderate length, rather stout, subtrigonal, depressed at the 

 base, straight ; upper mandible with the dorsal outline nearly straight^ 

 and sloping to near the tip, which is deflected and acute, the edges sharp 

 and overlapping ; lower mandible with the back broad, the sides slants 

 ing, the end slightly declinate. Nostrils basal, lateral, roundish, partly 



