Lancaster, Mass.
1910
Aug. 15
[August 15, 1910]

King birds eating fruit of Viburnum dentatum

  I came to Lancaster on the afternoon of the 13th
to spend Sunday with John E. Thayer. He met me at 
the station and drove me to his home. As we were ascending
the hill just below it a dozen or more King birds,
disturbed by our approach, rose from some shrubbery by 
the roadside. When I expressed some surprise at the
presence of so many in such a place Mr. Thayer added
to it greatly by assuring me that they had been there 
constantly for days past and that the attraction was
the berries of a number of Viburnum dentatum bushes  
which he had repeatedly watched them eating. Before he
told me this I had noticed that they flew from these 
bushes only. We found them there in undiminished numbers
on the morning of the 14th but all flew up before we
got very near & I did not see any feeding there. This
morning, however, I distinctly saw one pick a berry
from the stem and after holding it in the tip of the bill
for an instant, swallow it. The bushes are fairly loaded with
ripe fruit of the usual dull blue color & very bitter to human taste.                                                                                                          