TYRANT FL YCA. TCHER, OR KING BIRD. 2 1 7 



The trivial name king as well as tyrant has been bestowed 

 on this bird for its extraordinary behaviour, and the authority 

 it assumes over all others, during the time of breeding. At 



species, having the toes united at the base, there will be an evident 

 connection between this group and the Fissirostres. That gentleman, 

 in the second volume of the " Northern Zoology," relates a fact from his 

 journal when resident in Brazil, most beautifully illustrative of this 

 affinity, and shows the value of attending to all circumstances relative 

 to the habits of individuals, which though, like the present, of no 

 importance alone, will, when taken in connection with other views, be 

 of the very utmost consequence. " April 7, 1817. — Sitting in the house 

 this morning, I suddenly heard a splash in the lake close to the win- 

 dow ; on looking out, I saw a common grey-breasted tyrant (Tyrannus 

 crudelis) perched upon a dead branch hanging over the water, plunging 

 and drying itself. Intent upon watching this bird, I saw it, within a 

 quarter of an hour, dive into the lake two successive times, after some 

 small fish or aquatic insects, precisely like a kingfisher ; this action was 

 done with amazing celerity, and it then took its former station to plume 

 and dry its feathers." Here we have exactly the habits of the king- 

 fisher; and I believe a contrariety of manner, equally worthy of re- 

 mark, is observed among some of the Dacelones, frequenting woods, 

 and darting by surprise on the larger insects. Both tribes have another 

 similarity in their economy, and delight to sit motionless, either watch- 

 ing their prey, or pluming and resting on the extremity or top of some 

 dead branch, pale, or peaked rock. With regard to the tyrant's being not 

 only carnivorous, but preying also on the weaker reptiles, we have the 

 authority of Azara, who mentions the common Tyrannus sulphuratus, 

 or bentivo of Brazil, as " S'approchent des animaux morts pour l'em- 

 porter des debris et des petits morceaux de chair que laissent les 

 Caracaras." And Mr Swainson ("Northern Zoology," ii. 133) has 

 himself taken from the stomach of this species 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 a 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 tin- 

 described, was procured. It was shot on the banks of the Saskatchewan 



* They are also baccivorous, as shown by our author in the description of this 

 species and T. crinitus. 



