BIRDS OF NORTPI AND MIDDLE AMERICA 71 



ELANUS LEUCURUS MAJUSCULUS Bangs and Tenard 



North American White-tailed Kite 



Adult (sexes alike). — Upper surface light neutral gray to deep gull 

 gray, becoming gradually white on the anterior portion of the crown 

 and the forehead; sides of head white, a semicircle of black feathers 

 immediately anterior to the eye and continuing to the angle of the 

 mouth and as a narrow black rim around the eyes; chin, throat, and 

 rest of underparts pure white, the axillars and lesser under wing 

 coverts white, the outer median coverts black and the greater coverts 

 light gull gray; wings, above, deep slate gray to dark gull gray, the 

 lesser upper wing coverts black, forming a distinct "shoulder" patch; 

 middle pair of rectrices light neutral gray, the shafts yellowish brown 

 (in dry skins) ; the rest of the tail white more or less washed with light 

 gull gray; the two outermost primaries emarginated on the inner web; 

 the second primary usually the longest, third scarcely shorter (some- 

 times equal or even longer in a few cases) ; the first longer than, or 

 equal to the fourth; tail double-rounded, the longest feather (next to 

 the outermost) about 10 mm. longer than the middle ones and 19 mm. 

 longer than the outermost ones, which are the shortest; cere chamois 

 to cream buff, bill black; iris orange-rufous; tarsi and toes dull buffy- 

 yellow, claws black. 



Natal down. — Dull white, tinged with pinkish buff on the crown and 

 back; older birds said to have "bluish doAvn." 



^fMi (sexes alike).— Wing 302-328 (314); tail 174-186 (181.6); 

 culmen from cere 18-19 (18.7) ; tarsus 36-39 (37.8) ; middle toe without 

 claw 27-32 (29.6 mm.).*^ 



Immature. — Similar to adult, but the remiges and their greater 

 median and distal lesser upper coverts tipped with white; inter- 

 scapulars deep gull gray washed with bister; nape, occiput, crown, 

 forehead, cheeks, and auriculars white heavily streaked with bister, 

 the streaks becoming broader posteriorly where there is but little 

 white; tail as in adult but all the feathers with obscure dusky sub- 

 terminal bands, the bands continuing proximally along the edges of 

 the feathers for a short distance; underparts white with tawny-olive 

 to cinnamon-buff streaks on the chin, throat, breast, and upper abdo- 

 men; under wing coverts as in adults except that the greater row are 

 tipped with white. 



Range. — Peninsular Florida, where now very rare, Oklahoma (one 

 record. Fort Arbuckle, breeding), southeastern Texas (Rio Grande 

 City and Brownsville, to Victoria and Lee Counties), and California 

 (west of the desert, from the upper Sacremento Valley and Humboldt 



*5 Fourteen specimens. It is rather remarkable that there should be no sexual 

 difference in size in this species since Mathews, Birds Australia, v, 1916, 200 and 

 208, finds females to be larger than males in Elanus notatus and E. scriptus. 



