of perfect safety under tlie special guardianship of the Kingbird. In northern Illinois I 

 found the nests of the Robin and the Baltimore Oriole, and in another case that of the 

 Red-eyed Yireo and the Yellow Warbler on the same tree which had been selected by the 

 Kingbird as its nesting quarters. 



The Kingbird arrives in northern Illinois and Wisconsin rarely before May 10. 

 In south-western Missouri I noticed its appearance from the 15th to 20th of April, and 

 in south-eastern Texas usually by the end of March or the beginning of April. During 

 the first few days after its arrival it is silent, but as soon as it has become accustomed 

 to its old haunts its twittering is heard on all sides. Subsisting on flying insects almost 

 exclusively,, it does not appear until the weather has become warm. Its range of distri- 

 bution is very large, being found as a summer sojourner from Texas and Florida north 

 to the Saskatchewan, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and even, though 

 rather sparingly, to the Salt Lake Basin, the Truckee, and Puget Sound. In winter it is 

 found in Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and in South America. 



Owing to its abundance and to its confidence in man it is everywhere in our rural 

 districts a familiar bird. One of our characteristic garden birds, a typical American, as 

 it has no family relations elsewhere, it is as common in the North and East as it- is 

 in the South. Its favorite haunts are always gardeiis and orchards, but it may also be 

 found in isolated trees ^ in fields and pastures and in Osage orange hedges. In the 

 interior of the woods it is never found, and on the prairies it has only settled since 

 orchards and shade trees have been planted. In the North the common locust {Robinia 

 pseudacacia) is given preferance as a nesting site, but we may also find the structure in 

 oaks, sugar maples, Lombardy poplars, apple and pear trees, etc.; farther south the 

 honey locust and the Osage orange are favorite nesting sites. In Florida the orange 

 trees afford excellent opportunities to build the nest, and it is sometimes even found in 

 the top of a palm, the upper fronds of which are excellently adapted to watch for enemies 

 and insects. The structure is composed of various materials, grasses, and slender plant- 

 stems, intermixed with wool, plant-down, moss, bits of old leaves forming the founda- 

 tion, while the interior is lined with cotton, horse-hair, feathers, etc. In Texas a wooly, 

 gnaphalium-like plant enters largely into the composition of the structure, also Spanish 

 moss and cotton. The eggs, usually five in number, are creamy-white, sparingly marked 

 with large spots of rich madder-brown or chestnut, and lilac-gray. At the North only 

 one brood is reared annually, but farther south two broods are often made. 



The Kingbird feeds almost exclusively upon winged insects, such as moths, butter- 

 flies, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, etc. Smaller insects are swallowed at once, beetles 

 and grasshoppers are pounded by a few strokes against its perch. The Kingbird is 

 accused by many of feeding to some extent on bees, hence the name of Bee Martin or 

 Bee-bird has been applied to it. Close observers-, however, deny the justice of this 

 accusation. I am not able to vouch for the Kingbird's harmlessness in this respect, but 

 having kept bees myself I am prepared to say that the injuries done in this line cannot 

 be large. I have never seen the bird near the bee hives. A boyhood friend of mine, a 

 close observer, who makes bee-keeping his specialty, wrote me that he has always King- 

 birds around his home, but that he never noticed any injury done by them. He asserts 

 that only drones are captured and that the workers, provided with a formidable 



