76 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



external rim on the eyelids zinc orange; iris liver brown; tarsus and 

 toes dull yellow ocher; claws black. The male in adult plumage se- 

 cured on October 31 had the bill mainly black; cere, bare skin in 

 front of eye, gape, and mandibular rami flame scarlet ; iris carmine ; 

 tarsus and toes apricot orange; claws black. The adult thus was 

 much brighter in color." 



Food. — The everglade kite has been well named "snail hawk", for 

 it feeds exclusively on the meat of a large fresh-water snail {^Am- 

 fullarla de'pressa) ., which formerly abounded all over the Everglades 

 and is still abundant in some other fresh-water marshes and slug- 

 gish streams in Florida and in many places in South America. It 

 is useless to look for this kite where these snails have been killed off 

 by drainage or drought, as in southern Florida. Their presence can 

 be detected by their pearly egg clusters on the sawgrass or reeds. 

 Tlie kites search for the snails in the open places in the marshes or 

 in shallow ponds, beating slowl}^ back and forth, low over the ground, 

 after the manner of marsh hawks, or hovering over the water like 

 a gull. When the snail is located the kite plunges down to secure it 

 and flies with it in its claws to some favorite perch on a stump, post, 

 low tree, or bush ; often an old deserted nest is used as a feeding sta- 

 tion. Here the snail is neatly extracted with the aid of the kite's 

 long hooked beak, admirably suited for the purpose, and the shell 

 is dropped unbroken. That the birds use the same perch regularly 

 is shown by the large number of empty shells often found in such 

 places, sometimes as many as 200 or 300. There is no evidence to 

 indicate that this kite ever eats anything but these mollusks. 



Dr. John B. May (1935) quotes Herbert Lang (1924) as follows, 

 regarding its methods of feeding, as observed at Georgetown, British 

 Guiana: 



The snails remain in the water during the hotter part of the day, but in the 

 early morning and late afternoon are found at the surface or creeping about 

 on the marsh vegetation. The kite quarters back and forth low over the 

 water, suggesting a sea gull at a distance. Often it hovers over one spot for a 

 considerable interval, then dives down to pick up a snail which it carries in its 

 talons to some favorite perching place in a bush or low tree. Here it stands for 

 several seconds motionless, on one leg, holding the snail in the long claws of 

 the other foot. Soon the snail, which had withdrawn into its shell when picked 

 up, closing tightly its operculum, begins slowly to extrude its slimy body. 

 Suddenly, like a flash the Kite grasps the body of the snail, between the oper- 

 culum and the shell, in its blunt-edged but deeply hooked beak. The muscular 

 contraction of the snail's body apparently detaches it from its attachment 

 within the shell, and a moment later, with a shake of the Kite's head, the shell 

 is tossed aside and the body swallowed, including the operculum. 



Behavior. — Although it has a broad expanse of wing, this kite 

 flies with a slow, desultory flight; it seemed to me rather floppy 

 and heronlike, as if lacking the muscular power to move its great 



