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The Kingbird 
fence, it will remain motionless, except for frequently turning its head as | 
it searches the air for passing insects. Suddenly it will dash out, some- 
times a hundred feet or more, seize an insect, and then return to its perch. \\ 
It is always well for us to know what our bird-friends eat. Kingbirds j 
eat flies of many kinds. They also eat mosquitos, and, in fact, there is ' 
hardly an insect so unfortunate as to come within their |: 
Kingbirds and reach that is not destroyed, for the sharp eye of the 
Kingbird is ever on the watch, and its strong bill seems . 
never to tire of its work. I once knew a man who paid his boy two cents ! 
for every Kingbird he shot. This man raised bees, and he was perfectly 
sure that he often saw Kingbirds — which he, like many others, called Bee 
Martins — catch bees, as they came across the garden to or from the bee- 
hives. So the boy shot the four Kingbirds that lived near his father’s 
place, and then went around the neighborhood hunting for more King- ' 
birds, killing some as far as four miles from his home. One day, however, ! 
a naturalist connected with the United States Department of Agriculture j 
in Washington made a careful study of the feeding-habits of the King- 
bird. He found that, in truth, it did eat bees, but that it appeared to eat 
only the drones ! 
We all know, of course, that there are two kinds of bees in a hive: 
one, the workers that gather the honey and take care of the young, and 
the other the drones who will not gather honey, will not hunt for pollen, 
and do not, in fact, assume any of the duties around the hive. Perhaps 
the reason it does not disturb the workers is that they have a sharp sting, 
while the drones have none. 
All day and all night during the warm months of the year, many thou- 
sands of insects of various kinds are flying about 
Sharp Eyes through the air. We do not notice them, but the King- 
bird has a much sharper eye than man, and it has been 
proved that it can see a hundred feet away an insect that we would have 
difficulty in seeing at a distance of fifteen or twenty feet. After a heavy 
rain-storm, very few insects are in the air,— the wind and rain having 
killed many of them. So the hungry Kingbird, from its post, looks 
around in vain for something to eat. At such times, you will find it on 
the ground searching for flies and small beetles that have fallen before the 
force of the wind and rain. 
Classification and Distribution 
The Kingbird belongs to the Order Passer es and Family Tyrannidce (Tyrant 
Flycatchers) ; its scientific name is Tyrannus tyrannus. The species is found in 
summer and breeds throughout the whole United States and southern Canada, and 
winters in Central America and southward to northern Brazil. 
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Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 
