Life in La Plata 



233 



glade Kite, as it is called in Florida (Rostrhamus socia- 

 bilis), rather a rare bird in North America, but the 

 commonest of all the hawks in the meadow-lands about 

 La Plata. This bird has a very strongly curved beak; 

 in fact its beak is more strongly curved than is the case 

 in any other bird of the group to which it belongs. The 

 purpose of this strong curvature of the beak is realized 

 when we learn that its staple food consists of the snails 

 which it finds in the arroyos and shallow pools of the 

 pampas, and which it extracts from their shells. When 



Fig. 24. Head of Everglade 

 Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis}. | 



Fig. 25. Shell of Ampnllaria 

 canaliculata. | nat. size. 



nat. size. 



I was a small boy I was set by my father, who was a 

 conchologist, at the task of collecting the land-shells of 

 the neighborhood where we lived. In order to remove 

 the animals from the shells and prepare them for the 

 cabinet I was taught to scald them in hot water, and 

 then with a crooked pin to pull out the snails. The 

 crooked pin which I employed served exactly the same 

 purpose as the very crooked beak of these Everglade 

 Kites. The birds in great numbers frequent the swampy 

 lands and the borders of the small streams. Having 

 found a snail-shell, an Ampullaria, they carry it to the 

 top of a stake or a telegraph pole, and then, holding it 



