SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 337 



the pfairie as well as on the borders of woods and in orchards and gardens. In this 

 part of the State it is usually placed in trees densely festooned with Spanish moss, where 

 it is almost impossible to discover. I also found it in broad evergreen magnolias and 

 in honey-locusts planted for ornament near the houses of the country people. In some 

 cases Orchard Orioles, Painted Buntings, and Mockingbirds had their nests in the same 

 trees, and all lived in perfect harmony. In Lee County I found this bird much 

 more numerous than farther east. How abundant these beautiful birds were in that 

 locality, is shown by the fact that I discovered in one year fifty nests on an area 

 not more than four miles in diameter. Preferably the nests are placed in middle size 

 mesquit trees, which are thorny and not very densely leaved. The structure is, however, 

 also found in honey-locusts and mulberry trees, and in orchards they often choose peach 

 and pear trees for this purpose. All the nests were placed from six to twelve feet from 

 the ground, but sometimes they are placed from twenty to thirty feet high. I found 

 the birds as familiar and confident as the Kingbird at the North. Male and female are 

 mutually employed in the construction of their domicile. In south-eastern Texas the soft, 

 gray Spanish moss forms the main part of the structure, the cavity being lined with 

 grasses and cotton. Farther west all the nests examined by me were built of a soft, 

 wooly plant (Evax prolifera), w^hich grows abundantly on the edges of the forest 

 and on the dry prairie. This white, wooly material forms the foundation and gives the 

 whole structure a firmness and substantiality not found in nests built of other material. 

 The interior is made of fine plant-stems and grasses, and the lining consists of cotton, 

 hair, or feathers, or sometimes of w^ool. The nest is never hidden, and I think the birds 

 do not even make the attempt of concealing it. It is always easily discovered. The first 

 nest w^as found by me early in May and the last set of fresh eggs as late as July 4. 

 Two broods are raised annually by most pairs. The eggs, usually five, sometimes four 

 and six in number, are creamy-white, marked with a few dark brown spots, and 

 occasionally a purple dot, chiefly near the larger end. They reminded me, when I first 

 saw them, of the eggs of the Kingbird. 



The female hatches the eggs alone, the male keeping watch near by, playing in 

 the air alone or with a neighbor, or securing food for his mate. Being as brave and 

 bold as the Kingbird, he drives away every flying robber who approaches his domain. 

 When I inspected the nest the old birds circled around, uttering rather anxious notes 

 and showing great distress, but they never tried to attack me. The young are fed 

 exclusively with flying insects, such as moths, all kinds of diptera, grasshoppers, beetles, 

 and locusts, and these insects constitute the food of the old ones also. Bees, wasps, and 

 bumble bees are rarely captured. Berries and small firuits are not eaten. A more bene- 

 ficial bird than the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is scarcely imaginable, and it therefore 

 should find the protection of man always and everywhere. 



After the young are able to shift for themselves they congregate into large flocks 

 and are at that time until their departure by the middle of October mostly found in 

 the cotton-fields, where they create a great havoc among the moths of the very 

 destructive boll- worm {Heliothis armigera) and cotton eater-pillar {Aletia argilliacea). 



NAMES : Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Texan Bird of Paradise, Bird of Paradise, Paradise Bird, Paradise Fly^ 

 catcher, Paradise Fork-tail, Fork-tail, Scissor-tailed Bee Martin, Mesquit Bird, Swallow-tailed Flycatcher. 



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