l62 Jackson, Haunts of the Letter-winged Kite. [isf'jan. 



was much better tlian at the other liole visited, and would last 

 longer. Here another colony of the Letter-winged Kites breeding 

 was discovered, and when preparing camp a nest containing eggs 

 was found in a coolabah tree that stood over the spot. Ropes 

 were used for tent construction, as poles were unprocurable. This 

 we named colony No. 2, and a hunt rew^arded us by the discovery 

 of more nests. Some contained eggs, others young birds, and 

 several were just ready for eggs. The birds (which at this colony 

 totalled 29), upon being disturbed, flew up overhead in the same 

 peculiar and most graceful V-shaped flight as they did at No. i 

 colony, and kept doing so until they got up so high that it was 

 only with much difficulty they could be observed, and the altitude 

 must have been very great. They kept directly over the clump 

 of trees wherein they w'ere nesting. All the nests at colony No. 2 

 were constructed of exactly the same kind of twigs, &c., as already 

 quoted from the nests at colony No. i. All were in coolabahs. 

 One nest was well hidden in a dense clump of a very curious- 

 looking mistletoe, and a set of samples collected by me on the 

 spot have since been identified by Mr. J. H. Maiden as Loranihiis 

 grandibractetts, F. v. M. This parasitical growth was noticed on 

 a number of the coolabah trees. The eggs numbered from four to 

 six for a sitting, and the most usual clutch met with contained 

 five. They varied greatly in size, shape, and colour ; many were 

 boldly blotched, and very handsome, resembling closely the eggs 

 of the Black-shouldered Kite {Elamis axillaris). The nests were 

 placed from 12 to 35 feet up from the ground, and often situated 

 near the ends of limbs leaning well out over the water-hole. One 

 nest was in the top of a coolabah ^^•hich stood in the middle of the 

 water-hole. 



Later several more breeding colonies of the Letter-winged Kites 

 were discovered, and the number of eggs most frequently met 

 with was five. On three occasions only, and when nests con- 

 taining heavily-incubated eggs w^ere being examined, the female 

 bird returned and flew savagely at the climber, swooping down 

 at him wdth her sharp claws open and her legs hanging low. The 

 wind from her wings could plainly be felt on one's face as she 

 dashed past. All the nests were built of the same kind of twigs 

 as already described, and the birds all flew up overhead with their 

 wings upright and V-shaped, as previously noted. But I found 

 that the ordinary flight of these birds, after the young had left 

 their nests, or when not hunted or disturbed by man, was much 

 more horizontal and natural, the quivering and upright V-shaped 

 position of the wings being entirely absent. When nest-building, 

 the birds carry the twigs in their claws, and collect them from the 

 ground or on the dead and dry shrubs beside the trees wherein 

 they are breeding. We never noticed them flying more than a 

 few hundred yards away from the trees, at most, when collecting 

 nest-building material, and always quickly returning with a twig. 



The various colonies discovered were generally situated from 

 3 to 5 miles apart, and always in clumps of coolabah trees growing 



