See how graceful his flight is, and how easily be moves!" "Why did he go away last fall ?" asked Nat.

"Does he feel the cold weather very much?
"He does not stay in the United States until the weather is cold enough to dull him; but he has to move away for another reason.

The same reason that forces so many birds to leave us--he must follow his food.

This food consists of insects--different kinds of flies, ants, and grasshoppers, which disappear or die as the air grows cold.
"Rap, have you ever noticed the difference between the sounds in a spring night and a night in autumn?
In spring the air is humming with the calls of all sorts of insects, but in autumn it is silent, and even the crickets have stopped chirping.
"So about the last of September our Kingbirds, who live everywhere in the United States, gather in flocks, start to find a place where insects are still stirring about, and fly southward, following the sea-coast and the great rivers for paths.

Those from the eastern part of the country stop in Central America or fly on to South America, and those from the western part often stop in Mexico." "But how can they fly so far ?" said Nat; "it's hundreds of miles; and how do they find the way ?" "The flight of a bird is a wonderful thing, my boy.