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TYRANT FLYCATCHER, OR KING BIRD. 
Think how this dauntless bird, thy poultry’s guard, 
Drove ev’ry Hawk and Eagle from thy yard ; 
Watch’d round thy cattle as they fed, and slew 
The hungry black’ning swarms that round them flew ; 
Some small return — some little right resign, 
And spare his life whose services are thine ! 
1 plead in vain! Amid the bursting roar, 
The poor lost King Bird, welters in his gore ! 
This species is eight inches long, and fourteen in extent ; the 
general colour above is a dark slaty ash ; the head and tail are 
nearly black ; the latter even at the end, and tipt with white ; the 
wings are more of a brownish cast ; the quills and wing-coverts 
are also edged with dull white ; the upper part of the breast is 
tinged with ash ; the throat, and all the rest of the lower parts, 
are pure white ; the plumage on the crown, though not form- 
ing a crest, is frequently erected, as represented in the plate, 
and discovers a rich bed of brilliant orange, or 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 residence 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 plu- 
mage 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 
