408 FLYCATCHERS. 
at this season I have seen the Spotted Sandpiper drive away a 
pair of Kingbirds because they happened to approach the 
premises of her nest. But he now becomes, on this important 
occasion, so tenacious of his rights as readily to commence the 
attack against all his feathered enemies, and he passes several 
months of the summer in a scene of almost perpetual contest ; 
and not overrating his hostile powers, he generally finds means 
to come off with impunity. Eagles, Hawks, Crows, Jays, and 
in short every bird which excites his suspicion by its inten- 
tional or accidental approach, are attacked with skill and 
courage; he dives upon the heads and backs of the larger 
intruders, who become so annoyed and tormented as willingly 
to make a precipitate retreat. He pursues his foes sometimes 
for a mile ; and at length, assured of conquest, he returns to his 
prominent watch-ground, again quivering his wings in gratula- 
tion, and rapidly uttering his shrill and triumphant notes. He 
is therefore the friend of the farmer, as the scourge of the pil- 
ferers and plunderers of his crop and barn-yard. But that he 
might not be perfectly harmless, he has sometimes a propensity 
for feeding on the valuable tenants of the bee-hive; for these 
he watches, and exultingly twitters at the prospect of success 
as they wing their way engaged in busy employment ; his quick- 
sighted eyes now follow them, until one, more suitable than the 
rest, becomes his favorite mark. This selected victim is by 
some farmers believed to be a drone rather than the stinging 
neutral worker. The selective discernment of the eyes of 
this bird has often amused me ; berries of different kinds, held 
to my domestic Kingbird, however similar, were rejected 
or snatched as they suited his instinct, with the nicest 
discrimination. 
As the young acquire strength for their distant journey, they 
may be seen in August and September assembling together in 
almost silent, greedy, and watchful parties of a dozen or more, 
feeding on various berries, particularly those of the sassafras 
and cornel, from whence they sometimes drive away smaller 
birds, and likewise spar and chase each other as the supply 
diminishes. Indeed, my domestic allowed no other bird to 
