The note of the bluebird is a soft, sweet warble. He loves sunshine and springtime. In the fall his note becomes sad and low, as if he mourns because winter is coming. When the cold winds, and frosts, and bare trees, make the country desolate, the bluebird migrates. He goes to the Southern States, the West Indies, and Mexico. We are all glad to welcome him back. He is the prophet of fine weather. The farmers like him because he eats so many harmful insects. Of all the insect-eating birds, none is more famous than the flycatcher, or kingbird. In some places he is called the field-martin, and the tyrant. The name flycatcher comes from his food. He catches living, full-grown insects, such as flies, gnats, wasps, and some bees. I am sorry that he is accused of picking up bees. The name king, or tyrant, bird comes to this brisk little fellow from his manners. He is very strong, very swift on the wing, and very bold. He is fond of his brood and mate, and bold in their defence. He watches to drive off birds which might harm them. The big blue jay dares not rob a kingbird’s nest. The kingbird will chase a jay, a crow, even an eagle, or a hawk. His bill is sharp and strong, and as he flies under or over his enemy, he darts at him, and drives his bill into him with a peck. He is so fierce only when he has a young brood to defend. At other times he is quiet enough. When his young brood is in the nest, he feels so proud that he seems to think himself the lord of all birds. The purple martin can fly faster than the kingbird and likes to tease him. It is also very funny to see a big woodpecker and a kingbird having a conflict on a fence rail. The woodpecker whirls round and round like a boy turning springs over a bar. The kingbird flies from side to side and tries to get a peck at him but cannot. The kingbird is not a singer. He is a silent, dark bird. His plumes are brown, black, and white. On his head he has a crest, or crown of raised feathers. He seems very particular about his food. It is not every insect that he will eat. Many farmers, who have watched him carefully, say that he does not pick up worker-bees, but takes only the drones. He also eats many gad-flies that trouble and bite the horses. He devours hundreds of insects and worms which eat fruit, cucumbers, and pumpkins. In fact, even if the kingbird does eat a few bees, he more than pays for that damage by the good he does in destroying harmful insects. When a farmer shoots a kingbird he shoots one of his best friends. Besides all this, as we are not quite sure that the kingbird does eat worker-bees, I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt and let him live. LESSON XXXVI. A BRIGADE OF BIRDS. In some of the lessons in these Nature Readers, you have been told of crabs that are street-cleaners of the sea. You have also been told of insects that are cleaners of the air. I shall now tell you of some birds that are cleaners of fields and woods.