38 



KINGBIRD, OR TYRANT FLY-CATCHER. 



the Red-tailed Hawk. In the old bird, it is often found that a 

 difference of their colorings exist. For instance, on some the tail 

 is slightly barred with darker color, and also sprinkled over with 

 fine spots of darker color toward the tip ; on others, the tail has 

 only, toward the tip, one single darker bar, and on others, the 

 whole of the under side is white. These differences are undoubt- 

 edly the result of age. The full-grown male and female are 

 nearly alike in their colors. The male bird is about two inches 

 shorter than the female, the length of the Red-tailed Hawk 

 being about twenty to twenty-two inches. 



The coloring of the young of this species is as follows : Cere, 

 pale green; bill, pale blue, black at the point; eye, light amber or 

 straw color; eyebrow, projecting; head, broad, flat, and rather 

 large ; upper part of the head, sides of the neck, and back, brown, 

 streaked and seamed with white; scapulary and wing coverts, 

 spotted with white; quill-feathers, blackish ; tail coverts, white, 

 handsomely barred with yellowish brown ; tail, somewhat rounded, 

 light brown, or varying to a sorrel color, crossed with nine or ten 

 dark bars, and tipped with white ; wings, brown, and barred with 

 dusky ; the inner vanes are nearly all white, thinly marked with 

 minute dots of nut color, less bright yellow-feathered half-way 

 down ; belly, broadly spotted with black, or deep brown ; the tips 

 of the wings reach down to within three inches of the tip of the 

 tail. 



Plate XXX. gives a correct representation of the colorings 

 of the full-grown male and female Red-tailed Hawk. 



PLATE XXXI. 

 The Kingbird, or Tyrant Fly-catcher. {Tyrannus Carolinensus.) 



Fig. i, Male. Fig. 2, Female. 



Nuttall says : 



"This well-known, remarkable, and pugnacious bird takes 

 up his summer residence in all the intermediate region from 

 the temperate parts of Mexico to the uninhabited and remote 

 interior of Canada, being seen by Mr. Say at Pembina, latitude 49 

 degrees, and by Dr. Richardson, in the 57th parallel. In all 

 this vast geographical range, the Kingbird seeks his food and 

 rears his young. According to Audubon, they appear in Lou- 

 isiana by the middle of March, and about the 20th of April, 

 Wilson remarked their arrival in Pennsylvania in small parties of 

 five or six, but they are seldom seen in this part of New England 

 before the middle of May. They are now silent and peaceable, 

 until they begin to pair and form their nests, which takes place 

 from the first to the last week in May, or early in June, accord- 

 ing to the advancement of the season in the latitudes of 40 and 

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

 horizontal branch of an apple or pear tree, and 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 twig of the branch. The outside consists of coarse 

 stalks of dead grass and wiry weeds, the whole well connected 

 and bedded with cut-weed (Gna^halium flantagineum) down, 

 tow, or an occasional rope-yarn and wool; it is then lined with 

 Cry, slender grass, root fibers, and horse-hair. The eggs are gen- 

 erally 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. 



"The Kingbird has no song, only a shrill guttural twitter, some- 

 what like that of the Martin, but no way musical. At times, 

 as he sits watching his prey, he calls to his mate with a harsh 

 tsheup, rather quickly pronounced, and attended with some action. 

 As insects approach him, or as he darts after them, the snapping 

 of his bill is heard, like the snapping of a watch-case, and is the 



certain grave of his prey. Beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and 

 winged insects of all descriptions form his principal summer food. 

 I have also seen them collecting the canker-worms from the 

 elm. Toward autumn, as various kinds of berries ripen, they 

 constitute a very considerable and favorite part of his subsist- 

 ence. But with the exception of currants (of which he only eats 

 perhaps when confined), he refuses all exotic productions, con- 

 tenting himself with blackberries, whortleberries, those of the 

 sassafras, cornel, viburnum, elder, poke, and five-leaved ivy 

 (Cissus hederacea). Raisins, foreign currants, grapes, cher- 

 ries, peaches, peas, and apples were never even tasted, when 

 offered to a bird of this kind, which I had many months as 

 my pensioner ; of the last, when roasted, sometimes, however, 

 a few mouthfuls were relished, in the absence of other more 

 agreeable diet. Berries he always swallowed whole ; grass- 

 hoppers, if too large, were pounded and broken on the floor, 

 as he held them in his bill. To 'manage the larger beetles 

 was not so easy. These he struck repeatedly against the ground, 

 and then turned them from side to side, by throwing them 

 dexterously into the air, after the manner of the Toucan, and the 

 insect was uniformly caught reversed, as it descended, with the 

 agility of a practiced cup-and-ball player. At length the pieces 

 of the beetle were swallowed, and he remained still to digest 

 his morsel, tasting it distinctly soon after it entered his stomach, 

 as became obvious by the ruminating motion of his mandi- 

 bles. When the soluble portion was taken up, large pellets of 

 the indigestible legs, wings, and shell, as likewise the skins 

 and seeds of berries, were, in half an hour or less, brought up, 

 and ejected from the mouth, in the manner of the Hawks and 

 Owls. When other food failed, he appeared very well satis- 

 fied with fresh minced-meat, and drank water frequently, even 

 during the severe frosts of January, which he endured with- 

 out much difficulty, basking, however, like Diogenes, in the 

 feeble beams of the sun, which he followed round the room of 

 his confinement, well satisfied when no intruder or companion 

 threw him into the shade. Some very cold evenings he had 

 the sagacity to retire under the shelter of a depending bed-quilt ; 

 was very much pleased with the warmth and brilliancy of lamp- 

 light, and would eat freely at any hour of the night. Unac- 

 quainted with the deceptive nature of shadows, he sometimes 

 snatched at them for the substances they resembled. Unlike 

 the Vieros, he retired to rest without hiding his head in the 

 wing, and was extremely watchful, though not abroad till after 

 sunrise. His taciturnity and disinclination to friendship and 

 familiarity in confinement were striking traits. His restless, 

 quick, and side-glancing eye enabled him to follow the motions 

 of his flying insect prey, and to ascertain precisely the infalli- 

 ble instant of attack. He readily caught morsels of food in 

 his bill before they reached the ground, when thrown across 

 the room, and, on these occasions, seemed pleased with making 

 the necessary exertions. He had also a practice of cautiously 

 stretching out his neck, like a snake, and peeping about, either 

 to obtain sight of his food, to watch any approach of danger, or 

 to examine anything that appeared strange. At length we be- 

 came so well acquainted, that when very hungry he would ex- 

 press his gratitude on being fed, by a shrill twitter, and a lively 

 look, which was the more remarkable, as at nearly all other 

 times he was entirely silent. 



" In a natural state, he takes his station on the top of an apple- 

 tree, a stake, or a tall weed, and, betwixt the amusement of his 

 squeaking twitter, employs himself in darting after his insect 

 food. Occasionally he is seen hovering over the field, with 

 beating wing, almost like a Hawk, surveying the ground 01 

 herbage for grasshoppers, which are a favorite diet. At other 

 times they may be observed in small companies, flickering 

 over still waters, in the same employment — the gratification of 

 appetite. Now and then, during the heat of summer, they are 

 seen to dip and bathe in the watery mirror, and with this wash- 



