ys 
142 TYRANT FLYCATCHER, OR KING BIRD. 
The trivial name King, as well as Tyrant, has been bestowed on 
this bird for its extraordinary behavior, and the authority it assumes 
over all others during the time of breeding. At that season his ex- 
treme affection for his mate, and for his nest and young, makes him 
suspicious of every bird that happens to pass near his residence, so 
that he attacks, without discrimination, every intruder. In the months 
of May, June, and part of July, his life is one continued scene of 
broils and battles; in which, however, he ape a! comes off con- 
queror. Hawks and Crows, the Bald Eagle, and the Great Black 
Eagle, all equally dread a rencounter with this dauntless little cham- 
pion, who, as soon as he perceives one of these last approaching, 
launches into the air to meet him, mounts to a considerable height 
above him, and darts down on his back, sometimes fixing there to the 
great annoyance of his sovereign, who, if no convenient retreat or 
resting-place be near, endeavors by various evolutions to rid himself 
of his merciless adversary. But the King Bird is not so easily dis- 
mounted. He teases the Eagle incessantly, sweeps upon him from 
right to left, remounts, that he may descend on his back with the 
greater violence; all the while keeping up a shrill and rapid twitter- 
ing; and continuing the attack sometimes for more than a mile, 
till he is relieved by some other of his tribe equally eager for the 
contest. 
There is one bird, however, which, by its superior rapidity of flight, 
is sometimes more than a match for him; and I have several times 
witnessed his precipitate retreat before this active antagonist. This 
is the Purple Martin, one whose food and disposition are pretty similar 
to his qwn, but who has greatly the advantage of him on wing, in 
eluding all his attacks, and teasing him as he pleases. I have also 
seen the Red-headed Woodpecker, while clinging on arail of the fence, 
amuse himself with the violence of the King Bird, and play bo-peep 
with him round the rail, while the latter, highly irritated, made every 
attempt, as he swept from side to side, to strike him— but in vain. All 
this turbulence, however, vanishes as soon as his young are able to 
lizards, in an entire state, sufficiently large to excite surprise how they possibly 
could have been swallowed by the bird; it is also here that we have the habits, 
and, in some respects, the form of the Laniance, serving at the other extremity as 
@ connecting link. ‘The North American species, coming under the definition 
which we would wish to adopt for this group, are comparatively few. A new and 
more northern species is added by the authors. of the Northern Zoology,* — the 
Tyrannus borealis, Sw. ‘ 
Only one specimen of this species, which Mr. Swainson considers undescribed, 
was procured. It was shot on the banks of the Saskatchewan River. Like the 
King Bird, itis found inthe Fur countries only in summer. It is considerably 
smaller than the Tyrannus intrepidus, and may at once be distinguished from it by 
the forked tail not tipped with white, and much shorter tarsi, as well as by very 
evident differences in the colors of the plumage. Its bill is rather more depressed 
at the base, and its lower mandible is dissimilar to the upper one; the relative 
length of the tail-feathers in the two species are also different; the first of 7’. bo- 
realis, shorter than the third, the fourth being farther apart from the latter than in 
TT. intrepidus. — Ep. : . . ites 
* They are also bacciv prous, as shown by our author in the description of this species, 
and 7’. crinitus. * 
a Ce 
