2 1 8 TYRANT FL YCA TCHER, OR KING BIRD. 



that season his extreme 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 generally comes off conqueror. 

 Hawks and crows, the bald eagle and the great black eagle, all 

 equally dread a rencounter with this dauntless little champion, 

 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, endeavours 

 by various evolutions to rid himself of his merciless adversary. 

 But the king bird is not so easily dismounted. 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 twittering ; 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 own, 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 



river. Like the king bird, it is found in the 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 colours 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 T. borealis, shorter than the third, the fourth being farther 

 apart from the latter than in T. intrepidity. — Ed. 



