ings; his flanks are stained with salmon-red,
and when his wings are spread, there appears a large blotch of scarlet
at the inner angle of the intersection with the body. One individual
that I afterwards saw wore a scarlet epaulet, which was almost
concealed by the other plumes when the wing was closed, but was clearly
seen when it was extended. An orange or scarlet gem adorns the crown,
but is so well hidden by the other crest feathers that it is seldom
noticed.

My friend and I were privileged to witness a rare and attractive
scissorstail show, more gratifying than any circus performance. A
loggerhead shrike suddenly appeared on the scene, and made an assault
on the flycatcher. The two birds went gyrating, zigzagging, see-sawing
through the air in a perfect jumble of white and black and ash. It
must be remembered that the shrike himself makes a handsome picture on
the wing, and when you come to mix up a scissorstail and a shrike in
inextricable confusion, you have a feathery display worth seeing.

Nor was that the end of the exhibition, for in a moment a second
scissorstail, the precise _facsimile_ of the first, appeared from
somewhere, and the two flycatchers combined against their enemy. Then
for a few minutes there was such a chaos of shrike and scissorstail
that we could scarcely tell which was which. By and by the shrike
wheeled away, when, as if to bring the gladiatorial show to a climax,
the scissorstails engaged in a set-to that was really wonderful, coming
together in the air, whirling around and around, rising in a spiral
course, opening and closing their beautiful forked tails in quick
succession, the black and white trimmings flashing momentarily, then
disappearing, until the contestants finally descended, parted in the
most graceful manner, and alighted on separate fence posts, none the
worse for their _melee_.

In the evening I returned to the enchanted spot, but the scissorstails
had disappeared. Not having had my fill of these charmers, I stopped,
on my return home, for a day at Wellington, Kansas, where I was so
fortunate as to find three birds of this species, who permitted me to
watch them to my heart's content. They are not shy birds, but fly in a
graceful, leisurely way from post to post along the fence as you walk
or drive, sometimes sitting quietly to let you pass by. In this
respect their habits are much like those of their cousin, the kingbird.

As his name indicates, our bird is