MORE ABOUT MY FEATHERED FRIENDS. 91 



KING BIRD.* 



The habits of the King Bird are highly amusing to 

 watch. He is about the size of a blackbird, of dusky 

 plumage., but with a white border to his tail and some 

 white in the edges of the wing feathers. His note is 

 very harsh and grating, and his favorite position the top 

 of any upright stick or bare pole, from which point of 

 vantage he can survey the " limit " he has chosen to 

 reign over. Here he sits turning his head until the 

 bright glancing eye lights on some unwary insect, when 

 he darts off and rarely misses his aim. His prey secured, 

 he returns to his perch and awaits another chance. 



Both names given him are descriptive, the latter 

 apparently with good cause, if one may judge by the 

 enmity shown him by all the^ smaller birds. They show 

 this dislike by uniting together and making common 

 cause against the enemy, attacking him, not in fair fight 

 with beak and claws, but by keeping a certain distance 

 above him and darting down and striking him on the 

 head, then rising again swiftly to be ready to deal a 

 second blow. The bewildered bird, unable to defend 

 himself, can only flee from his tormentors and hide away 

 among the thickest evergreens, fairly beaten out of the 

 field. 



, Union is power ; by it the weak confound the strong. 

 Many an instance have I seen of a similar kind, many 



* Tyrant Flycatcher— Tyrannus. 



