BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
189 
that the Kingbird had a minnow not less than three inches long. I con¬ 
tinued my observations for about fifteen minutes, and during that time 
these birds caught several small minnows and ate them.” Notwithstand¬ 
ing the benefits which this bird confers, destroying, as Dr. Coues re¬ 
marks, a thousand noxious insects for every bee it eats, many farmers 
and others who keep honey-bees, are ever ready to slay every Kingbird 
which visits their premises. Although it is believed by some that these 
birds take only drone bees, such is not the case, as I have found both 
drone and working-bees in their stomachs; Mr. Gentry, also, in speaking 
of the bee-eating habit states that the Kingbird is no respector of kinds. 
Nuttall writing of this bird says: As insects approach him, or as he 
darts after them, the snapping of his bill is heard, like the shutting of 
a watch-case, and is the certain grave of his prey. Beetles, grasshoppers, 
crickets and winged insects of all descriptions form his principal sum¬ 
mer food; at times canker worms from the elm are also collected. To¬ 
wards autumn, as various kinds of berries ripen, these constitute a very 
considerable and favorite part of his subsistence; but, with the excep- 
I tion of currants (of which he only eats perhaps when confined), he re¬ 
fuses all exotic productions, contenting himself with blackberries, 
I whortleberries, those of the sassafras, elder and poke. The same writer 
further says : “Raisins, foreign currants, grapes, cherries, peaches, pears 
and apples were never even tasted, when offered 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 
I other more agreeable diet. Berries he always swallowed whole, grass- 
' hoppers, 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 into the air, and the insect was 
uniformly caught reversed as it descended, with the agility of a practiced 
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 indigestible 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 hawks and owls. When other food failed, lie 
appeared very well satisfied with fresh minced meat, and drank water 
frequently, even during the severe frosts of January. * * * Some 
very cold evenings he had the sagacity to retire under the shelter of a 
depending bed-quilt.” The few examinations which I have made are 
given in the following table: 
