146 TYRANT FLYCATCHER, OR KING BIRD 
Watched round thy cattle as they fed, and slew 
The hungry, blackening swarms that round them flew 
Some small return — some little right resign, 
And spare his life whose services are thine! 
plead in vain! Amid the bursting roar, 
The poor, lost King Bird welters in his gore ! 
This species is eight inches long, and fourteen in extent; the gen- 
eral color above is a dark slaty ash; the head and tail are nearly 
black ; the latter even at the end, and tipped with white; the wings 
are more of a brownish cast; the quills and wing-coverts are also 
edged with dull white ; the upper part of the breast is tinged with 
ash; the throat, and all the rest of the lower parts, are pure white ; 
the plumage on the crown, though not forming a crest, is frequently 
erected, as represented in the plate, and discovers a rich bed of bril- 
liant orange, or flame color, called by the country people his crown; 
when the feathers lie close, this is altogether concealed. The bill is 
very broad at the base, overhanging at the point, and notched, of a 
glossy black color, and furnjshed with bristles at the base; the legs 
and feet are black, seamed with gray; the eye, hazel. The female 
differs in being more brownish on the upper parts, hasa smaller streak 
of paler orange on the crown, and a narrower border of duller white 
on the tail. The young birds do not receive the orange on the head 
during their residence here the first season. 
This bird is very generally known from the Lakes to Florida. Be- 
sides insects, they feed, like every other species of their tribe with 
which I am acquainted, on various sorts of berries, particularly black- 
berries, of which they are extremely fond. Early in September they 
leave Pennsylvania, on their way to the south. 
A few days ago, I shot one of these birds, the whole plumage of 
which was nearly white, or a little inclining to a cream color; it was 
a bird of the present year, and could not be more than a month old. 
This appeared also to have been its original color, as it issued from 
the egg. The skin was yellowish white ; the eye, much lighter than 
usual ; the legs and bill, blue. It was plump, and seemingly in good 
order. I presented it to Mr. Peale. Whatever may be the cause of 
this loss of color, if I may so call it, in birds, it is by no means uncom- 
mon among the various tribes that inhabit the United States. The 
Sparrow Hawk, Sparrow, Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, and many 
others, are occasionally found in white plumage ; and I believe that 
such birds do not become so by climate, age, or disease, but that they 
are universally hatched so. The same phenomena are observable not 
only among various sorts of animals, but even among the human 
race; and a white negro is no less common, in proportion to their 
numbers, than a white Blackbird; though the precise cause of this in 
either is but little understood. 
