The love for offspring is very intense, and manifests itself in unwearied devotion, and the tenderest solicitude. From early morn until dusk, one parent or the other is constantly on the go for appropriate articles of fare. Usually but one is absent at a time on this important business. But the demands for food are so pressing, that both are sometimes compelled to leave home, but only for a short time, and then never beyond seeing distance of the nest. At first the young are fed upon smooth caterpillars, aphides, spiders, ants, butterflies, and dipterous insects; but as they mature, small beetles and other hard-shelled articulates are added to their varied and extensive menu. At the age of fifteen days, they quit the nest, receive instructions in ærial navigation under the tutorage of the paternal head, and in ten days more, are prepared to shift for themselves.
One peculiarity of this species must have struck the attention of every careful observer of its habits; that is, its remarkable sociability. Audubon cites a case where no less than nine pairs were found breeding in the same enclosure. We have known instances where as many as five nests, all occupied, were crowded in the same orchard, within a short distance of each other. The most perfect good feeling and harmony prevailed in this little colony, the birds mingling together with the freedom and ease of inhabitants of the best regulated human communities.
The eggs are oblong-oval in form, pointed at one extremity, and marked with pale purple blotches and a few deep dark purplish-brown dashes upon a light bluish-white background. Specimens from Washington measure .85 by .62 of an inch; from New Mexico, .79 by .54; and from Pennsylvania, .88 by .58.
[Original Size]
Plate V.—TYRANNUS CAROLINENSIS, Baird.—Kingbird.
The Kingbird, or Bee Martin, has an extensive range, being found during the summer throughout the continent of North America, from Texas and Florida in the south, as far as the 57th parallel of north latitude. Westward, north of the 44th parallel, it ranges from the Atlantic seaboard to Oregon and Washington on the shores of the Pacific.
Its arrival in the United States from Mexico, Central and South America, and tropical Cuba, where it winters, generally occurs during the early part of April. Having taken the step, the birds are not long in spreading themselves over their immense breeding-grounds, which have been found to be co-extensive with the whole territory over which they range. They reach the Middle Atlantic States from the 20th of April to the first of May; the New England, from the first to the 10th of the latter month, and their more northern habitats, not later than the 15th.