60 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



erratic scouting from a iioyition intermediate between tliese two. Wlien prey 

 is seen tlie bird "stands" witli wings quiet if tlie air is moving sufficiently to 

 permit it to 'liite", as its name would intimate its habit to be, or beats the 

 wings slowly from an angle well above the back. During such a stand it drops 

 its legs. If it stoops it makes no falcon drop of lightning ppeed with wings 

 drawn into a thin wedge along the sides of the body, but keeps them up in a 

 V angle above and slips down with legs hanging and at a speed one would 

 never guess was more than fast enough to catch a snail. But that they do 

 catch prey, some of it very agile, there is no doubt. And that this method is 

 used to catch it there is no doubt either, for they have been observed to do so. 



Laurence G. Peyton (1915) says: ''One morning, while working 

 near the nest, my brother saw one of the Kites returning from the 

 direction of the river with something in its claws. While still some 

 distance from the nest it began calling and was quickly joined by 

 the other bird. The first bird remained hovering in the air like a 

 Sparrow Hawk, while the other darted up underneath it, took the 

 food from its claws and returned to the nest while the other sailed 

 away." 



Behavior. — The flight of the white-tailed kite is light, airy, and 

 graceful; often it is a pretty fluttering flight with quick wing beats, 

 or a stationary hovering flight like a sparrow hawk; and at times 

 it is quite swift. I noticed that when the bird is soaring or scaling 

 there is a bend in the wing, as in the osprey. Dr. Pickwell (1930) 

 describes it as "with wings slightly raised and down-curving at the 

 tips." Also he says : "The leg-clangling habit of the Kites is one of 

 their most conspicuous oddities. On the nesting territory the pro- 

 testing birds flew here and there nearly constantly, uttering their 

 cries, beating the air slowly with short strokes, the wings held up 

 at a sharp angle above the back, the legs dangling from a point about 

 the center of the body." 



W. H, Hudson (1920) says of the South American form : 



Its wing-power is indeed marvellous. It delights to soar, like the Martins, 

 during a high wind, and will spend hours in this sport, rising and falling 

 alternately, and at times, seeming to abandon itself to the fury of the gale, 

 is blown away like thistle-down, until, suddenly recovering itself, it shoots 

 back to its original position. Where there are tall Lombardy poplar-trees 

 these birds amuse themselves by perching on the topmost slender twigs, 

 balancing themselves with outspread wings, each bird on a separate tree, 

 until the tree-tops are swept by the wind from under them, when they often 

 remain poised almost motionless in the air until the twigs return to their 

 feet. 



Although ordinarily gentle birds, these kites are often very pugna- 

 cious toward certain large birds, crows and hawks, that invade their 

 territory. Several observers have seen them persistently drive away 

 crows and the various Buteos. Dr. Pickwell (1930) writes: 



In fact many of our records of Kites have come about because our attention 

 has been drawn first to a large hurried Buteo in the distance and glasses 



