248 HISTORY OF THE 



slaty black; feathers somewhat greenish basally, more bluish terminally, with 

 a peculiar soft, milky appearance, and with very smooth, compact surface; ter- 

 tials almost entirely white, black only at tips; white on under side of wing 

 occupying all the coverts and the basal half of the secondaries. Younger: 

 Similar, but with the beautiful soft, purplish bronze black of shoulders and back 

 less conspicuously different from the more metallic tints of the upper parts. 

 Young: The black above less slaty, with a brownish east, and with a quite 

 decided gloss of bottle green; secondaries, primary coverts, primaries and tail 

 feathers finely margined terminally with white; feathers of the head and neck 

 with fine shaft lines of black." 



stretch of 

 Length. wing. 



Male 22.75 47.75 



Female... 23.50 51.00 



Iris black; bill bluish black, paler at base; cere and edges of 

 eyelids light blue; legs and feet pale blue, with a greenish 

 tinge; claws bluish flesh color. 



I have met with this elegant bird in various localities with- 

 in its range, usually in small flocks, seldom in abundance — a 

 graceful picture of ease and motion in the air, but almost help- 

 less upon the ground, their legs being too short for locomotion; 

 their feet, however, are well adapted for grasping and perching. 

 Their food consists chiefly of grasshoppers, beetles, lizards and 

 snakes, which they catch with ease, with their claws, while on 

 the wing, and devour as they sail along. On the arrival of the 

 birds upon the breeding grounds, they devote several days to 

 courtship and mating, and in selecting a place for their nests. 

 The males assist in building the nest, alternate in sitting and in 

 feeding the young, and, in fact, appear as attentive as the fe- 

 males.* 



April 27th, 1876 (the earliest arrival noticed), a pair put in 

 an appearance at Neosho Falls, and as they continued to circle 

 in their graceful flights over the same grounds — the edge of 

 the prairie and timber on the Neosho River — I became satisfied 

 that their nesting place would be selected within the circle, and 

 I devoted my leisure moments to watching their movements. 

 On the 5th of May they were joined by another pair, and later 

 in the day, to my great surprise and joy, two pairs of Missis- 



* I once saw a pair of these birds hi the act of copulation. They were sitting on a small, 

 horizontal limb, close together and facing each other, when, quicli as a flash, ihe female turned 

 or backed under the limb, the male meeting her from the top. 



