270 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
length, assured of conquest, he returns to his prominent 
watch-ground, again quivering his wings in gratulation, 
and rapidly uttering his shrill and triumphant notes. 
He is therefore the friend of the farmer, as the scourge 
of the pilferers and plunderers of his crop and barn-yard. 
But that he might not be perfectly harmless, he has some- 
times a propensity for feeding on the valuable tenants of 
the bee-hive; for these he watches, and exultingly twit- 
ters at the prospect of success, as they wing their way 
engaged in busy employment ; his quick-sighted eyes 
now follow them, until one, more suitable than the rest, 
becomes his favorite mark. This selected victim is by 
some farmers believed to be a drone rather than the 
stinging neutral worker. The selective discernment of 
the eyes of this bird has often amused me ; berries of 
different kinds, held to my domestic King-bird, however 
similar, were rejected or snatched, as they suited his in- 
stinct, with the nicest discrimination. 
As the young acquire strength for their distant journey, 
they may be seen in August and September, assembling 
together in almost silent, greedy, and watchful parties of 
a dozen or more, feeding on various berries, particularly 
those of the sassafras and cornel, from whence they some- 
times drive away smaller birds, and likewise spar and 
chase each other as the supply diminishes. Indeed, my 
domestic allowed no other bird to live in peace near him, 
when feeding on similar food, and though lame of a wing, 
he often watched his opportunity for reprisal and revenge, 
and became so jealous, that instead of being amused by 
companions, sometimes he caught hold of them with his 
bill, and seemed inclined to destroy them for invading his 
usurped privileges. In September the King-bird begins to 
leave the United States, and proceeds to pass the winter 
in tropical America. During the period of migration 
