

THE KINGBIRD. 



' {Tyrannus tyrannus.) 



Soft sits his brooding mate, her guardian he, 

 Perch'd on the top of some tall, neighb'ing tree ; 

 Thence, from the thicket to the concave skies, 

 His watchful eye around unceasing flies. 



— Alexander Wilson 



Few of our common birds are better 

 known than is the Kingbird. Few, too, 

 if in reality there are any, are greater 

 favorites with the people of our farming 

 communities. Bold and without fear in 

 the presence of other birds, the King- 

 birds exhibit a tame and confiding spirit 

 in the presence of man. Not infrequently 

 they will nest in the trees and shrubbery 

 of dooryards and orchards in quite close 

 proximity to dwellings. One observer 

 speaks of a pair which built their nest 

 on a sulky plow. Two little girls visited 

 the site of the nest every day and the sit- 

 ting bird would almost permit the chil- 

 dren to put their hands on it before it 

 would leave the nest. They should not 

 be classed as quarrelsome birds, for they 

 generally live in perfect harmony with 

 other species of the smaller birds which 

 very frequently nest in the same tree. It 

 is the birds of prey and the crows and 

 blue jays which especially excite the ani- 

 mosity of the Kingbirds. It is then that 

 their valorous and pugnacious charac- 

 ter becomes evident. The male is the 

 watchdog of the family. He establishes 

 his lookout on the topmost branch of a 

 high tree. He watches not only to pro- 

 tect his own home, with its eggs or 

 young, but also those of his bird neigh- 

 bors. 



Indirectly the Kingbirds are of great 

 value to the farmer who raises poultry. 

 When one or more pair nest in the vicin- 

 ity of a poultry yard the fowls are seldom 

 molested by hawks or other birds of prey. 

 Kingbirds "are a perfect terror to all 

 hawks, instantly darting at and rising 

 above them, alighting on their shoulders , 

 or necks, and picking away at them most 

 unmercifully until they are only too will- 



ing to beat a 



'Kingbird." 



hasty retreat." The only 

 bird that seems ever to be a match for 

 this spirited defender, is the little ruby- 

 throated humming-bird, which is just as 

 pugnacious and fully as aggressive, and 

 has been known to force the Kingbird to 

 flee from its attacks. 



Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, in his Birds 

 of Manitoba, relates an interesting obser- 

 vation. He says : "While climbing to a 

 hawk's nest, the old birds came flying 

 about my head uttering their piercing 

 whistles ; these attracted the attention 

 and aroused the indignation of a King- 

 bird, who immediately gave chase and 

 soon had the satisfaction of knowing that 

 he was making himself consummately ob- 

 noxious to the hawks, for they could not 

 keep him off and they would not fly 

 away, so that he worked his tyrannical 

 little will on them much as he pleased. 

 As well as I could make out, he took sev- 

 eral rides of over a hundred yards on one 

 of the hawks, and I do not doubt when 

 perched on his back he was not idle." 



The name Tyrant Flycatcher is per- 

 haps the proper name for this bird. To 

 be sure he is a flycatcher as is well at- 

 tested by the resounding snap of his clos- 

 ing mandibles after catching an insect, 

 for which he darted, straight out from 

 some exposed perch. But he is not a 

 tyrant except toward the birds of prey 

 and such species as might despoil his 

 nest. Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller has said, 

 "W T ith the exception of the crow, against 

 whom he seems to have a special grudge, 

 I have never seen a Kingbird take notice 

 of any bird unless he alighted near his 

 nest, and the meekest creature that wears 

 feathers will try to drive away strangers 

 who approach that sacred spot." Mr. 



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