MISSISSIPPI KITE 69 



fastened its claws so firmly in his hand that he had to cut the 

 tendons in its leg to release its grip. It is brave too in the defense 

 of its nest, driving away such predatory birds as crows and jays. 

 It will even occasionally attack a man that is climbing to its nest, 

 as Mr. Ganier (1902) relates: 



I had scarcely made half the distance when three or four Kites began to 

 circle about on the level with the tree-top, and as I seated myself to rest 

 on a branch, twelve feet below the nest, one of the birds began to dart at me. 

 It was a very pugnacious fellow and would circle around within twenty feet 

 of me until it would catch my eye; then, pausing for a moment, it would 

 dart directly at me, to within six or eight feet of my face, when it would 

 swoop suddenly upward, emitting at the same time a sharp shrieking cry. 

 This performance was kept up until I descended, the birds darting closer as I 

 reached the nest. 



Voice. — The Mississippi kite is usually a rather silent bird except 

 when the vicinity of its nest is invaded. Mr. Stevens refers to the 

 alarm note at such times as a whistling cry of three or four syllables, 

 the first and last on a lower key and the middle on a higher key, 

 "longer, more forceful and tremulous"; it is the only note he has 

 heard. C. J. Pennock describes it as a "clear but not loud call, 

 kee-e-e, repeated sometimes two or three times in succession." Dr. 

 Sutton tells me : "The usual cry of the kite I should write down as 

 phee-phew. 1 heard this cry hundreds of times. I did not hear a 

 three-syllabled cry. In mating t]^e birds sometimes chipper at each 

 other, a cry similar to one of the marsh hawk's calls." 



Fall. — Mr. Stevens says that these kites leave Oklahoma in rather 

 large flocks in September, usually by the fifteenth. Mr. Ganier 

 (1902) writes: 



Near the middle of August the birds seem to be very active at feeding; 

 evidently they are then preparing for their southward journey. A specimen 

 shot in the last days of August was so fat that I found it impossible to make 

 a first-class skin of it ; the breastbone sank far below the level of the breast 

 meat. 



As the first days of September approach the last individuals may be seen 

 slowly flying southward ; then the woods lose their charm to me for the sky 

 has lost its gem, the Mississippi Kite. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southeastern United States ; accidental north to Pennsyl- 

 vania and New Jersey and south to Guatemala. Only slightly 

 migratory. 



The Mississippi kite breeds north to northern Texas (Tascosa 

 and Lipscomb) ; Kansas (Sun City, Medicine Lodge, and Bald- 

 win City) ; Missouri (Webster and Howell Counties) ; probably 

 formerly southern Illinois (Mount Carmel) ; Georgia (probably 

 Marshallville and Augusta) ; and South Carolina (Columbia and 



