KING-BIRD, OR TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 267 
summer food. I have also seen them collecting the can- 
ker-worms from the Elm. Towards autumn, as various 
kinds of berries ripen, these constitute a very considera- 
ble and favorite part of his subsistence ; but, with the ex- 
ception of currants (of which he only eats perhaps when 
confined), he refuses all exotic productions, contenting 
himself with black-berries, whortle-berries, those of the 
sassafras, cornel, Viburnum, elder, poke, and 5-leaved 
ivy.* Raisins, foreign currants, grapes, cherries, peach- 
es, pears, and apples were never even tasted, when offer- 
ed to a bird of this kind, which I had many months as 
my pensioner ; of the last, when roasted, sometimes, 
however, a few mouthfuls were relished, in the absence 
of other more agreeable diet. Berries he always swal- 
lowed whole, grasshoppers, if too large, were pounded 
and broken on the floor, as he held them in his bill. To 
manage the larger beetles was not so easy ; these he 
struck repeatedly against the ground, and then turned 
them from side to side, by throwing them dexterously in- 
to the air, after the manner of the Toucan, and the 
insect was uniformly caught reversed as it descended, 
w r ith the agility of a practised cup-and-ball player. At 
length, the pieces of the beetle were swallowed, and he 
remained still to digest his morsel, tasting it distinctly, 
soon after it entered the stomach, as became obvious by 
the ruminating motion of his mandibles. When the 
soluble portion was taken up, large pellets of the indiges- 
tible legs, wings, and shells, as likewise the skins and 
seeds of berries, were, in half an hour or less, brought up 
and ejected from the mouth in the manner of the Hawks 
and Owls. When other food failed, he appeared very well 
satisfied with fresh minced meat, and drank water fre- 
quently, even during the severe frosts of January, which he 
*Cissus hederacea . 
