NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 237 



and thistle-down, and lined with down and sometimes with a few fib- 

 rous roots. Since the introduction of cotton gins and sheep ranches 

 most of the nests are built of weeds and cotton or wool, or both felted, 

 lined with the same, but oftener with no lining. Mr. E. C. Davis in- 

 forms me that the favorite nesting site of this bird in Cooke county, 

 Texas, is in the low mesquite bushes on the prairies. He has fre- 

 quently found double nests ; one now in his collection consists of three 

 nests built on each other and made entirely of cotton, measuring fif- 

 teen inches from top to bottom. 



Mr. Singley says the usual number of eggs in a set is five, 

 fully eighty per cent, being of this number ; the other twenty 

 per cent, is about equally distributed between sets of four and 

 six. They are white, or creamy-white, marked with a few dark 

 red spots, and occasionally of an obscure purple, chiefly at the 

 larger end ; the eggs vary in color from pure white, unmarked speci- 

 mens, which are very rare, to finely speckled with reddish-brown, and 

 often covered with large spots and blotches of brown and lilac, and 

 look as if whitewash had been brushed over the colors. A large series 

 of these eggs in Mr. Norris' cabinet demonstrate the fact that they do 

 not show as great a variation in their markings as those of the com- 

 mon Kingbird, which they resemble ; they average smaller, and their 

 sizes are more constant. Their average size is .87X.67. 



444. Tyrannus tyrannus (Linn.) [304.] 



Kingbird. 



Hab. Eastern temperate North America, south to Central and western South America to Bolivia; 

 Cuba; Bahamas. Rare west of the Rocky Mountains. 



A common bird in Eastern United States, and perhaps better 

 known by the name of Bee-bird or Bee-martin. It destroys thousands 

 of noxious insects, which more than compensates for all the bees it 

 eats. This bird's pugnacious disposition during the breeding season, 

 the boldness, persistent tenacity, and reckless courage with which it 

 attacks other birds, even crows, hawks and owls, are characteristics 

 familiar to all. The nest is placed in an orchard or garden, or by the 

 roadside, on a horizontal bough, or in a fork at a moderate height; 

 sometimes in the top of the tallest trees along streams. It is bulky, 

 openly situated, and as easily found as that of the Robin. Exterior- 

 ly it is ragged and loose, but well cupped and brimmed, consisting 

 of twigs, weedstalks, grasses, rootlets, bits of vegetable-down and wool 

 firmly matted together. The lining is of slender grasses, chicken 

 feathers, horse hair, fibres, rootlets and wool, used singly or combined 

 in various proportions. 



The eggs range from three to five in number. A large series be- 



