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TYRANT FLYCATCHER, 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 discri- 
mination, 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 con- 
queror. 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, lanches 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, endea- • 
vours by various evolutions to rid himself of his merciless 
adversary. But the King Bird is not so easily dismounted. 
He teazes the Eagle incessantly, sweeps upon him from right 
mentions the common Tyrannus sulphuratus, or Bentivo of Brazil, as “ S’ap- 
prochent des animaux morts pour l’emporter des debris et des petits morceaux 
de chair que laissentles Carafaras.” And Mr Swainson {North. Zool. ii. 133.) 
has himself taken from the stomach of this species lizards, in an entire state, 
sufficiently large to excite surprise how they possibly could have been swallowed 
by the bird ; it is also here that we have the habits, and, in some respects, 
the form of the Laniance, serving at the other extremity as a connecting link. 
The North American species, coming under the definition which we would 
wish to adopt for this group, are comparatively few. A new and more northern 
species is added by the authors of the Northern Zoology ,* — the Tyrannus 
borealis , Sw. 
Only one specimen of this species, which Mr Swainson considers unde- 
scribed, was procured. It was shot on the banks of the Saskatchewan 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. intrepidus. — Ed. 
* They are also baccivorous, as shewn by our author in the description of this species and 
T. crinitus. 
