224 TYRANT FLYCATCHER, OR KING BIRD. 



flame colour, called by the country people his crown : when 

 the feathers lie close, this is altogether concealed. The bill is 

 very broad at the base, overhanging at the point, and notched, 

 of a glossy black colour, and furnished with bristles at the 

 base; the legs and feet are black, seamed with gray; the eye, 

 hazel. The female differs in being more brownish on the 

 upper parts, has a smaller streak of paler orange on the crown, 

 and a narrower border of duller white on the tail. The young 

 birds do not receive the orange on the head during their resi- 

 dence here the first season. 



This bird is very generally known, from the Lakes to 

 Florida. Besides insects, they feed, like every other species 

 of their tribe with which I am acquainted, on various sorts of 

 berries, particularly blackberries, of which they are extremely 

 fond. Early in September they leave Pennsylvania, on their 

 way to the south. 



A few days ago I shot one of these birds, the whole plumage 

 of which was nearly white, or a little inclining to a cream 

 colour ; it was a bird of the present year, and could not be 

 more than a month old. This appeared also to have been its 

 original colour, as it issued from the egg. The skin was 

 yellowish white; the eye, much lighter than usual; the legs 

 and bill, blue. It was plump, and seemingly in good order. 

 I presented it to Mr Peale. Whatever may be the cause of 

 this loss of colour, if I may so call it, in birds, it is by no means 

 uncommon among the various tribes that inhabit the United 

 States. The sparrow-hawk, sparrow, robin, red- winged black- 

 bird, and many others, are occasionally found in white 

 plumage ; and I believe that such birds do not become so 

 by climate, age, or disease, but that they are universally 

 hatched so. The same phenomena are observable not only 

 among various sorts of animals, but even among the human 

 race ; and a white negro is no less common, in proportion to 

 their numbers, than a white blackbird ; though the precise 

 cause of this in either is but little understood. 



