As they are known occasionally to plunge into the water, and, emerging thence, to resume their seat on a high branch, to dry and dress their plumage, it has been conjectured that they feed on small fish, but this is unsupported by any positive evidence.
Though the Kingbird usually builds in trees, it does not always select such situations. In the summer of 1851, passing over a bridge near the village of Aylesford, in Nova Scotia, I observed a Kingbird fly from a nest built on the projecting end of one of the planks of which the bridge was made. So remarkably exposed a position, open to view, and on a level with and within a few feet of a highway, must be quite unusual.
The eggs of this bird are five, sometimes six, in number, and vary considerably in size. Their ground-color is white with a more or less decided roseate tinge, beautifully spotted with blotches and markings of purple, brown, and red-brown. In some, these are disposed in a confluent crown around the larger end; in others they are irregularly distributed over the entire egg. In length they vary from 1.05 to .86 of an inch, and in breadth from .72 to .70 of an inch.
Tyrannus dominicensis, Rich.
GRAY KINGBIRD.
Tyrannus dominicensis, Brisson, Ois. II, 1760, 394, pl. xxxviii. fig. 2.—Rich. List, 1837.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 172. Lanius tyrannus, var. β, dominicensis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 302. Muscicapa dominicensis, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 392, pl. xlvi.—Ib. Birds Am. I, 1840, 201, pl. lv. Melittarchus dominicensis, Cabanis, Journal für Ornith. III, Nov. 1855, 478. Tyrannus griseus, Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 76, pl. xlvi.—Swainson, Mon. Shrikes, Quart. Jour. XX, 1826, 276.—Bp. Consp. 1850, 192 (Bonaparte makes two species).—Scl. List, 1862, 236. Tyrannus matutinus, Vieill. De La Sagra pl. xiv.
Sp. Char. Bill very large and stout. Tail conspicuously forked. Wings long; the first six quills attenuated abruptly, much longer than the seventh. Tertials much developed, nearly intermediate in length between the longest primaries and the shortest secondary. Above, and on the sides of the head and neck, ash-gray, shaded in places with brown, which forms the middle portion of each feather. Downy portion at the base of each feather above light ash, then light brown, tipped and edged with darker ash-gray. The mottled appearance is caused by the brown showing from under the feathers; the ear-coverts darker. A concealed colored patch on the crown, formed by the base of the feathers, white before and behind, orange in the middle. Lower parts grayish-white, tinged with ash across the breast, deepest anteriorly. Sides of the breast similar to, but lighter than, the back. Under wing-coverts and axillars pale sulphur-yellow. The wings brown, darker to the tips; the secondaries narrowly, the tertials more broadly, edged with dull white. Edges of the coverts paler. Alula dark brown. Tail similar in color to the quills. Upper tail-coverts brown. Bill and feet black. Length, 8.00; wing, 4.65; tail, 4.00; tarsus, .76.
Young. Lesser wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts distinctly bordered with pale ochraceous; tail-feathers bordered all round with a deeper shade of the same. No colored patch on the crown.
Hab. South Carolina coast, accidental; Florida Keys and West Indies; Nicaragua; New Granada; Santa Cruz (Newton, Ibis I, 146, eggs); Carthagena, N. G. (Cass. P. A. N. S. 1860, 143); Cuba (Cab. J. III, 478, breeds; Gundl. Rep. 1865, 238, “Mel. griseus”); Jamaica (Gosse, B. J. 169, breeds; March, P. A. N. S. 1863, 287); St. Thomas (Cass. P. A. N. S. 1860, 375); Sombrero (Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, 1864, 99, “griseus”); Greytown, Nicar. (Lawr. Ann. 183); Sta. Bartholemy (Sund. 1869, 584); Massachusetts (Maynard, B. E. Mass. 1870, 124).
This species, though about the same size as the T. carolinensis, is much more powerfully built, the bill and feet being much stronger, the former considerably longer than the head, and as large as that of Saurophagus sulphuratus, though less compressed.