54 
MUSCICAPA TYRANNUS. 
pair, and build their nest. This generally takes place 
about the first week in May. The nest is very often 
built in the orchard, on the horizontal branch of an 
apple tree ; frequently also, as Catesby observes, on a 
sassafras tree, at no great height from the ground. The 
outside consists of small slender twigs, tops of withered 
flowers of the plant yarrow, and others, well w r ove 
together with tow and wool ; and is made large, and 
remarkably firm and compact. It is usually lined with 
fine dry fibrous grass, and horse hair. The eggs are five, 
of a very pale cream colour, or dull white, marked with 
a few large spots of deep purple, and other smaller ones 
of light brown, chiefly, though not altogether, towards 
the great end. They generally build twice in the season. 
The king bird is altogether destitute of song, having 
only the shrill twitter above mentioned. His usual 
mode of flight is singular. The vibrations of his broad 
wings, as he moves slowly over the fields, resemble 
those of a hawk hovering and settling in the air to 
reconnoitre the ground below ; and the object of the 
king bird is no doubt something similar, viz. to look out 
for passing insects, either in the air, or among the 
flowers and blossoms below him. In fields of pasture 
he often takes his stand, on the tops of the mullein, and 
other rank weeds, near the cattle, and makes occasional 
sweeps after passing insects, particularly the large black 
gadfly, so terrifying to horses and cattle. His eye 
moves restlessly around him, traces the flight of an 
insect for a moment or two, then that of a second, and 
even a third, until he perceives one to his liking, when, 
with a shrill sweep, he pursues, seizes it, and returns to 
the same spot again, to look out for more. This habit 
is so conspicuous when he is watching the bee-hive, 
that several intelligent farmers of my acquaintance are 
of opinion that he picks out only the drones, and never 
injures the working bees. Be this as it may, he certainly 
gives a preference to one bee, and one species of insect, 
over another. He hovers over the river, sometimes for 
a considerable time, darting after insects that frequent 
such places, snatching them from the surface of the 
