20 THE 7A U DU. B:OINt BU Lee eee 
This flycatcher is predominantly pearl-gray, with sides and wing linings 
a salmon pink. The crown has a concealed reddish patch. The wings are 
dark above and the tail black, with the longest feathers white, tinged with 
salmon and broadly black-tipped. The female is similar, but usually has no 
crown patch, is paler, and has a much shorter tail. 
The Scissor-tailed is a bird of the open southern plains. It lives about 
ranch houses and perches on trees at the edge of town, quite composed 
and unafraid. It is numerous in the coastal prairie regions of Texas. Bet- 
ween San Antonio and Rockport one may see, as I did, at least two dozen 
of these birds, one at a time, in varying flight and graceful poses. It has no 
liking for timbered areas, and in migration may be looked for at the edges 
of fields and pastures. It is a great wanderer and may be found flying over 
almost any region in its range except high mountains. 
In flight this flycatcher is airy, swift, and graceful. It is one of the 
best known birds that engages in singing flight. During courtship and even 
after the eggs are laid, the Scissor-tailed makes spectacular use of its long 
tail in fantastic aerial dances. At times it rises high and circles about, as 
though in play. Its abrupt, sharp turns are facilitated by pivoting on its widely 
spread tail. It utters a harsh ‘“‘keak” or “‘kew”’ and also on occasion shrill, 
kingbird-like twitterings or chatterings. 
By examination of stomach contents it has been determined that 96% 
of the diet of this bird consists of animal food, practically all of which 
is insects and spiders. The vegetable portion consists of small fruits and 
seeds. Beetles amount to 14% of the flycatcher’s food; they form a rather 
common article of diet. All but 1% of these beetles are harmful species. 
Among them are snout beetles, boll weevils, stink-bugs, and squash bugs. 
Grasshoppers and crickets are a favorite food, eaten every month in a 
good percentage. The average taken for a year is 46% — the highest for 
any flycatcher. Where the bird is abundant, it is of much economic value. 
Its consumption of grasshoppers alone should insure it complete protection. 
The nest, a rather bulky structure lined with a heavy layer of cotton, 
is frequently placed in hollow trees or stubs or at the end of a mesquite 
tree limb 20 to 30 feet high. The bird often uses pine needles, moss, dead 
leaves, hair, feathers, etc., but always a piece of cast-off snake skin in the 
nest. There are usually five eggs, buff, clear white or pinkish white, 
streaked longitudinally with lines of dark purple or black. The nest is 
constructed of plant stems, weeds, thistle-down, and cotton. 
The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is individual in his family, as no other 
species resembles it much. The crest is distinctive. The gray breast con- 
trasted with the yellow belly, and the characteristic high, strident call note 
identify it, to say nothing of the tail. It is pugnacious, like the kingbirds, 
being fearless in its attacks upon such predacious birds as White-necked 
Ravens and Caracaras, which it pursues with fury and persistence, often 
alighting on their backs and stabbing them furiously with its bill. Like 
all other members of its family, it chooses high perches from which it 
sallies forth to capture passing insects. 
The Scissor-tailed breeds in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and southern 
Nebraska, and occasionally east to western Louisiana and southwest Missou- 
ri. It winters from southern Mexico to Panama. 
927 Brummel Street, Evanston, Illinois 
