64 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



into the interior of the country, and in this respect resembles Falco 

 furcatus. Plantations lately cleared, and yet covered with tall dying 

 girted trees, placed near a creek or bayou, seem to suit it best." 



G. W. Stevens tells me that it arrives in northern Oklahoma from 

 May 1 to 15. And Charles J. Pennock gives me his earliest date for 

 northern Florida as March 1. He says that during the spring this 

 kite frequents "the neighborhood of the more dense, low hammocks, 

 while later in the season it might be found in the vicinity of the 

 rivers and ponds." 



Nesting. — Although the Mississippi kite often builds its nest in 

 the top of some tall tree, Mr. Colvin has sent me some notes on sev- 

 eral nests that he found in the valley of the ISIedicine River, Kans., 

 which were at rather low elevations. Pie refers to one nest that "was 

 50 feet up in the outer branches of a cottonwood" ; but the others, 

 ten or more, found on two or more days spent in the kite country, 

 were in low elms or walnut trees. The timber in which the kites 

 were nesting on May 31 and June Y, 1931, "was made up largely of 

 elm, walnut, chinaberry, and elder. Most of the trees were stunted 

 by the wind and storms and most of the elms were blighted." One 

 nest in an elm was ''situated on a limb about 12 feet from the ground, 

 small and compactly built of sticks of trees, G to 8 inches in length. 

 The usual sticks were one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch in 

 diameter and broken clean at both ends. The nest was lined with 

 green walnut leaves" (pi. 22). Another nest was "in the upper 

 branches of a small walnut tree some 18 feet from the ground." Two 

 other nests mentioned were on horizontal limbs of dwarf elms, 14 

 and 18 feet up, one of these measured 10 inches in diameter and 8 

 inches in height; it had "a small quantity of dried plants in the 

 center" and was lined with green walnut leaves. 



Mr. Stevens tells me that in northern Oklahoma it nests in scat- 

 tering trees, 12 to 40 feet up, usually in the larger forks but some- 

 times in the smaller forks and occasionally on horizontal limbs. 

 Elms are most commonly chosen, but also black jack oaks and 

 occasionally cottonwoods, hackberries, and soapberries. He says the 

 nests are always lined with green leaves, often with twigs attached ; 

 these may come from the nesting tree or another, commonly the 

 sumac {Rhus glabra). 



Albert F. Ganier has sent me excellent photographs of three nests 

 taken near Vicksburg, Miss. (pi. 21). One of these was 80 feet up 

 in a sweetgum tree, "located at the crest of a ridge in a wooded 

 pasture"; it was a well-built nest, containing much Spanish moss; 

 it had been used the previous year and was occupied the following 

 year. Another nest was 60 feet up in a red oak on a ridge in thin 

 woods; this was the "only nest of 18 examined that was built in an 



