186 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



in May and continues into July. Fresh eggs have been found 

 at Barachias, May 25, June 6, June 25, and July 25. 



General habits. — The kingbird lives about the farm, fre- 

 quenting orchards, pastures and cultivated fields in which are 

 scattering trees. At some seasons it is found on the marshes 

 and the open pine flats of the coast region. 



As indicated by its common name, it is something of a 

 tyrant, but confines its attacks chiefly to hawks, crows, and 

 jays. When one of these appears in sight, one or more king- 

 birds instantly give chase and worry this intruder until he 

 has left the neighborhood. By reason of this habit, it ia 

 much appreciated about the farm as a protection to the poultry 

 yard, but its habit of occasionally visiting the beehive has put 

 it in bad favor with some. 



The bird is rather noisy and restless, and not at all shy. It 

 is an expert flycatcher and takes most of its food on the wing. 

 Perched on a dead limb of a tree, a fence post, or even a mul- 

 lein stalk, it quietly surveys the nearby landscape, and so 

 soon as an insect appears in sight launches into the air in 

 pursuit, returning after each sally to the same perch. Its 

 notes are ordinarily rather harsh and unmusical, but occa- 

 sionally something resembling a song may be heard. 



The nests are strongly built of twigs, rootlets, plant down, 

 twine, hair, etc., placed in trees, usually well out on a limb 

 and from 10 to 20 feet above the ground. The eggs, S or 4 in 

 number, are white, handsomely marked with shades of brown 

 and lavender. 



Food habits. — The food of this member of the flycatcher 

 family, as might be expected, consists principally of insects, 

 including beetles, cotton-boll weevils, grasshoppers, butter- 

 flies, bees, wasps, flies, mosquitoes, and caterpillars. It hard- 

 ly merits the name "bee bird," given it because of its habit of 

 visiting the hive in search of these insects, for in over 600 

 stomachs examined in the Biological Survey, only 22 con- 

 tained bees, to the number of 61, and of these the great 

 majority were drones. It takes, also, a small percentage of 

 wild fruits and berries, such as chokecherries, wild black cher- 

 ries, elderberries, mulberries, blackberries, huckleberries, 

 pokeberries, bayberries, frost grapes, and the fruit of the 



