NORTH AMERICAN WHITE-TAILED KITE 55 



In spite of the fact that Taylor, in 1889, wrote of the Kite, "I venture to 

 assert that there are not more than four pairs this j'ear breeding within a 

 radius of seven miles of that city [San Jose]", today, forty-one years later, 

 there are still that many or more. * * * 



Let us estimate that an average of four pairs of Kites (too high an esti- 

 mate for some, too low, perhaps, for others) frequents each. We have then 

 sixteen pairs of Kites in this entire valley. Twenty pairs, forty birds, I feel 

 convinced, account for every Kite from Gilroy to the Bay and from Mount 

 Hamilton to the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains. * * * 



The Kite was certainly more numerous in San Joaquin and Sacramento coun- 

 ties forty to sixty years ago than it is now. In other regions where it was 

 present, especially in marsh districts, undoubtedly it has been seriously re- 

 duced in numbers. The coudition in hill sections inhabited by it can be but 

 guessed at. Here it probably has suffered least. * * * 



This Kite is probably a dying species, never within historical times having 

 predominated ns such raptorial birds as the Desert Sparrow Hawk or Red- 

 tailed Hawk for instance. 



Since the above was written Dr. Pickwell (1932) has published a 

 "requiem" for the kites in this valley; whereas he estimated that 

 there were possibly 16 to 20 of these kites in the Santa Clara Valley 

 in 1928, he now says: "This day (October 30, 1931) there cannot 

 be more than two or three, and all too possibly none." We hope 

 that this is a mere local condition. 



His observations on the home life of these kites were made in the 

 foothills of the Mount Hamilton Range in Santa Clara County : 



The Slatore ranch lies in the foothills whose summits are grass-covered with 

 wild oats and bromes, with scattered valley oaks and live oaks, and here and 

 there a cluster of California coffee berry {Rliamnus californica) and gnarled 

 Sambucus. Rocky outcrops, where more moisture may be trapped, have curious 

 copses of scrubby growths of toyon, holly-leaved cherry, sages and sage brush ; 

 and the gullies lined with buckeye, California laurel, and poison oak run down 

 to Silver Creek where the laurels and willows predominate. But the hills are 

 mostly smooth as velvet, golden velvet most of the yeai% and green oaks are 

 scattered over the velvet, like buttons on a buxom vest. In three buttons on 

 this velvet vest were occupied nests of the White-tailed Kite. [See pi. 18.] 



That such a habitat is not an unusual Kite home is shown by the fact that 

 all the Kites of Santa Clara Valley today are, excepting one or two pairs, 

 restricted to the lower foothills of the Mount Hamilton Range and Santa Cruz 

 Mountains, on either side of the north end of the Valley. The exception is of 

 not more than two pairs that occur to the north of San Jose between that 

 city and the Alviso salt marshes. These frequent the cottonwoods and eucalyp- 

 tus trees of the Coyote Creek and, not infrequently, are seen hunting over the 

 treeless marshes at the foot of the Bay in common with Marsh Hawks, native 

 there, and Turkey Vultures and Red-tailed Hawks from the hills. 



Bendire (1892) says of their haunts: "Their usual resorts during 

 the breeding season are the banks of streams or the fresh water 

 marshes, especially if a few scattered live oaks or willow groves are 

 close by, and their favorite nesting sites are the tops of live oaks, 



