TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 
53 
dismounted. He teases the eagle incessantly, sweeps 
upon him from right and left, remounts, that he may 
descend on his hack with the greater violence ; all the 
while keeping up a shrill and rapid twittering; and 
continuing the attack sometimes for more than a mile, 
till he is relieved by some other of his tribe equally 
eager for the contest. 
There is one bird, however, which, by its superior 
rapidity of flight, is sometimes more than a match for 
him ; and I have several times witnessed his precipitate 
retreat before this active antagonist. This is the purple 
martin, one whose food and disposition is pretty similar 
to his own, but who has greatly the advantage of him 
on wing 1 , in eluding 1 all his attacks, and teasing 1 him as 
he pleases. I have also seen the red-headed wood- 
pecker, while clinging on a rail of the fence, amuse 
himself with the violence of the king bird, and play 
bo-peep with him round the rail, while the latter, 
highly irritated, made every attempt, as he swept from 
side to side, to strike him, but in vain. All his turbu- 
lence, however, vanishes as soon as his young are able 
to shift for themselves ; and he is then as mild and 
peaceable as any other bird. 
But he has a worse habit than all these ; one much 
more obnoxious to the husbandman, and often fatal to 
himself. He loves, not the honey, but the bees ; and, 
it must be confessed, is frequently on the look-out for 
these little industrious insects. He plants himself on 
a post of the fence, or on a small tree in the garden, 
not far from the hives, and from thence sallies on them 
as they pass and repass, making great havoc among their 
numbers. His shrill twitter, so near to the house, gives 
intimation to the farmer of what is going on, and the 
gun soon closes his career for ever. Man arrogates to 
himself, in this case, the exclusive privilege of murder; 
and, after putting thousands of these same little insects 
to death, seizes on the fruits of their labour. 
The king birds arrive in Pennsylvania about the 20th 
of April, sometimes in small bodies of five and six toge- 
ther, and are at first very silent, until they begin to 
