Evening star., 1945-02-17
This and That
Bu Charles E. Trdce1Deu.

A reader wants to know what is the
real name of a bird which she knew
down in Texas and which they called
the scissor bird.
This is the scissor tailed f1ycatcher,
sometime an accidental visitor to Mary
land and Virginia, although we have
never known it to be reported here
abouts
In Texas 1t is often called the bird
OF paradise. Its head Is pale gray, its
body gray, but with pink tinge along
the back. The tail and winss4are black,
with white markings
1t is the scissor tail, of course, which
is most distinctive. This Is long. to
10 inches-the entire bird Is IA inches
long-in two distinct blades" which
the bird moves in scissor-like fashion
at will.
This tail, with his screaming cry, sets
him apart from all others
The female has much shorter tail.
The scissor-tail has a fiat sort of
head, with black band down the mid
die and deep brown bill The entire
head somehow seems to be wearing a
sort of jockey cap.
This unusual fycatcher does not
confine himself to merely eating the
food which gives him his name. He
attacks hawks and other large birds
just for the fun of it, much as our bee
bird, or kingbird, does
He has an unusual method of fight,
dipping up and down, to make the cut
OF a saw in the air, and every time he
reaches a crest he emits one of his
screams
sembles our bluejay, who also likes to
make big noise
The Mexicans say that the scissor
tailed flycatcher eats the brains of
other birds. Ornithologists say there
is not word of truth to this 1t is
based merely on the observation that
the bird does attack hawks and others,
and in. doing SO dives down at them
from above.
Insects and spiders compose practi-
cally all of the birds food, along with
various beetles, so that on the whole
it is very helpful species. Grasshop-
pers are favorite tidbit. Unlike most
fycatchers this big bird eats mostly
ground forms.
tail uses exactly the same form of as
sault as the king bird executes so clev-
erly. He outf1ies his victim and alights
on its back.
From this position he pecks forward
and so often wounds the head, giving
rise to the legend that his only food is
the brains of other birds. This is as
much SANDER as the one that king
hof >f fIa g.
the scissor-tail-eat quantities of bees.
Investigation has shown that the bee
bird eats very few bees and of these
only the drones
Such beliefs about birds are due to
the urge of mankind to draw general
observations from some specific and
maybe single observation.
Some one saw king bird eat bee
and then told about it. The next one
who reported the story said merely that
so and so had seen a bird "eating
bees" This was all that was necessary.
evidently to put the bird on the popular
map as the "bee bird"
ALI f1ycatchers are unusual birds.
The crested flycatcher always includes
In the building OF its nest cast snake
skin, if it can find one. There has
been a great deal of dispute about the
purpose of this. 1t is easy to say that
the bird does it to scare live snakes
away. Most ornithologists do not be-
lieve this at all. They feel that the
practice simply reflects pure fancy or
whim
The phoebe, or pewee, one of our
finest species, belongs to this family.
The wood pewee must not he con-
fused with the phoebe. The little wood
pewee. which says "pee-a-wee-a-wee"
as plain as can be, is smaller than the
phoebe.
Both phoebe and wood pewee are
common summer residents In the
Washington area. Occasionally few
phoebes may winter here. Records show
them to have been seen in late Decem-
her and .1anuarv