142 
442. Milvulus tyrannus (Linn.). [302.] Fork-tailed Flycatcher. 
A tropical American species, accidental in the United States. Re- 
corded by Audubon from Mississippi and Kentucky. 
443. Milvulus forficatus (Gmel.). (301.] Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. 
The true home of the “Texas Bird of Paradise” is from Texas to 
Central America. In summer it occurs regularly in Indian Territory 
and Kansas. In southern Kansas it is a tolerably common summer 
resident (Goss). Accidental stragglers have been recorded from as far 
north as Manitoba and Hudson Bay. In the spring of 1884 the first 
arrivals spread over the whole of the northern part of Texas during 
the last week of March. In Indian Territory they appeared at Caddo 
April 11 and at Darlington April 9. The bulk reached Eagle Pass, 
Tex., April1, and three days later they were numerous at San Angelo, 
where they were breeding from May 6 to July 16. Clutches of four, 
five, and six eggs were found. 
In the fall of 1884 a flock of transient Scissor-tailed Flycatchers was 
seen at San Angelo October 1. The last was seen there October 6, 
At Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Mr. Nash found one “lying dead on 
the prairie” in October. 
Tn the spring of 1885 none but Texas observers reported its arrival. 
It reached San Angelo March 14; Bonham March 28, and Gainesville 
March 31. It was noted also at Eagle Pass, San Antonio, and Mason. 
In the fall of 1885 the last was seen at Bonham October 5, and at Ma- 
son October 11. 
444, Tyrannus tyrannus (Linon.). [304.] Kingbird. 
A common summer resident throughout Manitoba and the Missis- 
sippi Valley. Even as far south as Houston, Tex., it breeds abun- 
dantly; but in the valley of the Lower Rio Grande it is a migrant only 
(Sennett & Merrill). At Brown’s Valley, on the border between Min- 
nesota and Dakota, it is so abundant that Roberts and Benner found 
twenty-five nests in one day (June 17, 1879), “all containing full sets 
of perfectly fresh eggs.” (Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. V, 1880, p. 15.) 
This species will be treated with reference to the influence which the 
atmospheric warm and cold waves had uponits movements. In study- 
ing the weather reports of the Signal Service it is found that a succes- 
sion of cold aad warm waves pass over the Mississippi Valley. They 
begin in the northwest and pass eastward and southward. This is true 
of the warm waves as well as the cold. The common idea that a warm 
wave begins in the south and passes northward is wrong; it begins in 
the north and passgs suuthward. For example, on the night of May 
15, 1884, a warm wave began at Custer, in the Rocky Mountains. <At 
11 p. m. the temperature was 70° Fahr., while at Memphis, Tenn., sev. 
eral hundred miles farther south and east, it was seven degrees colder 
(the mercury standing at 63°). This warm wave reached the Missouri 
River at Yankton and Omaha on the night of May 16, the Mississippi 
