File:Birds and nature in natural colors - being a scientific and popular treatise on four hundred birds of the United States and Canada (1913) (14775193823).jpg

Identifier: birdsnatureinnat03chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature in natural colors : being a scientific and popular treatise on four hundred birds of the United States and Canada
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds -- North America
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ht salmon,fading on crissum; bill and feet black. Immature: Similar; tail undeveloped;no crown-patch; first primary not emarginate. Length to fork of tail 7.50-8.50(190.5-215.9); wing about 5.00 (127.); tail 5.00-10.00 (127.-254.); bill .65(16.5). Females somewhat smaller, and with less developed tails. Recognition Marks.—Chewink size (comparing body sizes, exclusive oftail); hoary-ash, scarlet and salmon coloration; tail greatly produced, deeplybifurcated. Nesting.^—Nest, of sticks, etc., lined with feathers and other soft materialsbuilt in trees. Eggs, 3-5, .89 x .67 (22.6x17.), pure white or creamy white,boldly but sparingly spotted with rich madder-brown and lilac-gray. Range.—Texas, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, southern Kansas, southwesternMissouri, south through eastern Mexico to Costa Rica. Accidental in southernFlorida (Key West), New Jersey, New England. York Factory (Hudson BayTerritory), etc. This exceedingly graceful Flycatcher is known to be a great wanderer, but 492
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its normal range is confined to Texas, with adjacent territory on the north andsouth. The species is admitted to our state list on the authorit) of Mr. OliverDavie, who reports a single example said to have been taken near Marietta. The Scissor-tail is so named from a habit it has of opening and closing itselongated tail-feathers like the blades of a pair of scissors. These remarkableappendages may possibly serve the bird as balancers, or brakes, in flight, but amore natural explanation would seem to be that they were provided to enable theowner to work off his surplus energies, and to grace his bold sallies after insectprey. The birds are rather quarrelsome, especially among themselves. A fightbetween four or five males such as one observer reports, must be a spectacularaffair—equal to one of those other occasions celebrated in the song of their nativeland, When deys razors aflyin troo de air. Like the kingbird it prefers the open country to forests, and seems to be bestsuited with

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