284 SWALLOW-TAILED KITE 



snake tliat it holds in its talons ; and it has also 

 been seen by Doctor Merriam to dart down and 

 pick a wasp's nest from the underside of a leaf, 

 flying off eating the contents as it went. 



In cotton fields the Kites turn their acrobatic 

 skill to good 25urpose, descending to feed on the 

 cotton worms. They also eat a great many grass- 

 hoppers, but their favorite foods are snakes, liz- 

 ards, frogs, and insects. In Florida, where snakes 

 can readily be dispensed with, the Kites eat so 

 many they are known as ' Snake Birds.' 



This is surely a good record, and puts the Kites 

 on the ' white list ' of Hawks. Indeed, the more 

 we study the beneficial Hawks the more we are 

 impressed ^vith the contrast between them and 

 the three black sheep on the black list. It is 

 indeed fortunate that the blue Goshawk is with 

 us only in fall and winter, and that the Sharp- 

 shinned is so small it can manage quarry little 

 larger than small birds ; for that narrows down 

 the evil done by the black-listers to the depreda- 

 tions of Cooper's Hawk (see Fig. 166, p. 270), 

 the true Chicken or Hen Hawk, who destroys both 

 poultr}' and Doves, and whose sins are so many 

 that they are borne by a large number of those 

 who are innocent of game dinners. That we 

 make no mistakes in identification in future, and 

 lay the blame only where it belongs, let us look 

 carefully over the white-list birds once more. 

 While the injurious Hawks are slender, long- 



