140 BIRDS 



Range — ^United States to the Rocky Mountains. British 

 proArinces to Central and South America. 



Migrations — May. September. Common summer resi- 

 dent. 



In spite of his scientific name, which has branded him 

 the tyrant of tyrants, the kingbird is by no means a bully. 

 See him high in air in hot pursuit of that big, black villain- 

 ous crow, who dared try to rob his nest, darting about the 

 rascal's head and pecking at his eyes until he is glad to 

 leave the neighborhood! There seems to be an eternal 

 feud between them. Even the marauding hawk, that 

 strikes terror to every other feathered breast, will be 

 driven off by the plucky little kingbird. But surely a 

 courageous home defender is no tyrant. A kingbird doesn't 

 like the scolding catbird for a neighbor, or the teasing 

 blue jay, or the meddlesome English sparrow, but he 

 simply gives them a wide berth. He is no Don Quixote 

 ready to fight from mere bravado. Tyrannus tyrannus is 

 a libel. 



For years he has been called the bee martin and some 

 scientific men in Washington determined to learn if that 

 name, also, is deserved. So they collected more than two 

 hundred kingbirds from different parts of the country, 

 examined their stomachs and found bees — mostly drones — 

 in only fourteen. The bird is too keen sighted and 

 clever to snap up knowingly a bee with a sting attached 

 when, probably, he is more sorry for it than the bee- 

 keeper. 



He destroys so many robber flies — a pest of the hives — 

 that the intelligent apiarist, who keeps bees in his orchard 

 to fertilize the blossoms, always likes to ee a pair of king- 



