442. FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. _Muscivora tryannus._

Range.--A Central and South American species accidentally having
occurred in the United States on several occasions.

This is a handsome black, white and gray species of the size and form of
the next.

[Illustration 282: Buffy gray.]
[Illustration: deco.]
[Illustration: left hand margin.]

Page 281

443. SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER. _Muscivora forficata._

Range.--Mexico, north through Texas to southern Kansas; accidental in
other parts of the country.

The Scissor-tail or "Texan Bird of Paradise" is the most beautiful
member of this interesting family. Including its long tail, often 10
inches in length and forked for about 6 inches, this Flycatcher reaches
a length of about 15 inches. It is pale grayish above, fading into
whitish below, and has scarlet linings to the wings, and a scarlet crown
patch. They are one of the most abundant of the breeding birds in Texas,
placing their large roughly built nests in all kinds of trees and at any
elevation, but averaging between ten and fifteen feet above ground. The
nests are built of rootlets, grasses, weeds and trash of all kinds, such
as paper, rags, string, etc. The interior is generally lined with plant
fibres, hair or wool. They lay from three to five, and rarely six eggs
with a creamy white ground color, more or less spotted and blotched with
reddish brown, lilac and gray, the markings generally being most
numerous about the larger end. They average in size about .90 x .67.
Data.--Corpus Christi, Texas, May 18, 1899. 6 eggs. Nest of moss, vines,
etc., on small trees in open woods near town. Collector, Frank B.
Armstrong.

444. KINGBIRD. _Tyrannus tyrannus._

Range.--Temperate North America, breeding from the Gulf of Mexico north
to New Brunswick, Manitoba and British Columbia; rare off the Pacific
coast.

This common Tyrant Flycatcher is very abundant in the eastern parts of
its range. They are one of the most pugnacious and courageous of birds
attacking and driving away any feathered creature to which they take a
dislike, regardless of size. Before and during the nesting season, their
sharp, nerve-racking clatter is kept up all day long, and with redoubled
vigor when anyone approaches their nesting site. They nest in any kind
of a tree, in fields or open woods, and at any height from the ground,
being found on fence rails within two feet of the ground or in the tops
of pines 70 or 80 feet above the e