TYRANT FL YCA TCHER, OR KING BIRD. 2 1 9 



red-headed woodpecker, while clinging on a rail of the fence, 

 amuse himself with the violence of the king bird, and play 

 bo-peep with him round the rail, while the latter, highly- 

 irritated, made every attempt, as he swept from side to side, 

 to strike him — but in vain. All this turbulence, however, 

 vanishes as soon as his young are able to shift for themselves, 

 and he is then as mild and peaceable as any other bird. 



But he has a worse habit than all these, one much more 

 obnoxious to the husbandman, and often fatal to himself. He 

 loves, not the honey, but the bees ; and, it must be confessed, 

 is frequently on the look-out for these little industrious insects. 

 He plants himself on a post of the fence, or on a small tree in 

 the garden, not far from the hives, and from thence sallies 

 on them as they pass and repass, making great havoc among 

 their numbers. His shrill twitter, so near to the house, gives 

 intimation to the farmer of what is going on, and the gun 

 soon closes his career for ever. Man arrogates to himself, in 

 this case, the exclusive privilege of murder ; and, after putting 

 thousands of these same little insects to death, seizes on the 

 fruits of their labour. 



The king birds arrive in Pennsylvania about the 20th of 

 April, sometimes in small bodies of five and six together, and 

 are at first very silent, until they begin to pair and build their 

 nest. This generally takes place about the first week in May. 

 The nest is very often built in the orchard, on the horizontal 

 branch of an apple tree ; frequently also, as Catesby observes, 

 on a sassafras tree, at no great height from the ground. The 

 outside consists of small slender twigs, tops of withered 

 flowers of the plant yarrow, and others, well wove together 

 with tow and wool ; and is made large, and remarkably firm 

 and compact. It is usually lined with fine dry fibrous grass 

 and horse hair. The eggs are five, of a very pale cream colour, 

 or dull white, marked with a few large spots of deep purple, 

 and other smaller ones of light brown, chiefly, though not 

 altogether, towards the great end (see fig. 1). They generally 

 build twice in the season. 



