46 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



close together and facing each other, when, quick as a flash, the 

 female turned or backed under the limb, the male meeting her from 

 the top." 



Nesting. — Much has been written about the nesting habits of the 

 swallow-tailed kite in various parts of the country. In Florida its 

 favorite nesting sites are in the tall, slender, Cuban pines near 

 cypress swamps. The nests are seldom found very far from the 

 cypresses and are sometimes placed in the tops of these trees. The 

 kites are quite dependent on the long Spanish moss for nest building, 

 and H. H. Bailey told me that recent hurricanes in extreme south- 

 ern Florida have destroyed so much of this moss that the kites have 

 largely moved away from certain sections. Dr. W. L. Ralph, who 

 had considerable experience with these kites in Florida, sent the fol- 

 lowing notes to Major Bendire (1892) : "They usually commence 

 laying about the middle of April, and I have found them sitting on 

 their nests from that time until the 1st of June, the latter being 

 the latest date I have ever remained in Florida. Most of them 

 have their eggs laid by the middle of May. * * * As nearly as I 

 could judge, about three-fourths of the nests of this species found 

 by me were about the same distance above the ground, i. e., they were 

 90 feet, and the remainder from a little above that height to 125 or 

 130 feet." 



He describes a typical nest as follows: 



It was situated 90 feet above the ground in, or rather on, the top of a very 

 slender pine tree growing on the edge of a cypress svpamp. The trunk of this 

 tree at a height of 5 feet above the ground was not more than 15 inches in 

 diameter, and at the place where my climber stood, as he took the eggs, it was 

 less than 3 inches, while the limbs he stood on were only about an inch thick. 

 The nest was composed of large twigs thickly covered with Spanish moss 

 (Tillandsia usneoides) and long moss (Usnea barhata), lined with the same 

 materials, with the addition of a few feathers from the birds. It measured 20 

 inches in length, 15 inches in width, and 12 inches in depth on the outside, 

 and 6 inches in diameter by 4 inches deep on the inside. * * * 



The Swallow-tailed Kite has a peculiar way of leaving its nest, for instead 

 of flying directly from one side, as other birds do, it nearly always rises 

 straight up for a short distance first, as if it were pushed up with a spring, 

 and, when about to alight on its nest, it will poise itself a short distance above 

 its eggs and then gradually lower itself down on to them. When they are 

 thus poised above their nests there is scarcely a perceptible movement of their 

 wings, and they often lower themselves so gradually that one can hardly tell 

 when they have reached their eggs. 



Bendire (1892) quotes J. W. Preston as follows: 



* * * Nesting materials (twigs and moss) are carried by the female in 

 her talons, the male following close, and going on the nest to arrange them. 

 Days, and sometimes even weeks, are required to suitably complete the struc- 

 ture. During this time they work in the morning and fly over the lakes and 



