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THE MUSEUM. 



gantic Barn Swallows; and like the 

 Chimney Swifts when they have a 

 habit of traveling together in small 

 companies, usually consisting of three 

 individuals, especially when they first 

 return from the South. During the 

 breeding Gseason flocks consisting of 

 from two to three, to ten or twelve 

 birds, but oftener of three, may be 

 seen following one another around, fre- 

 quently uttering their calls and circiling 

 in and out among the tree tops so fast 

 as to make one dizzy to look at them. 

 Except during this season one seldom 

 sees one of these birds unless it is fly- 

 ing, and I have often wondered if they 

 did not at times sleep wtiile on the 

 wing. At least I know that they usu- 

 ally if not always eat while flying, for 

 I have many times seen one sailing 

 leisurely along, occasionally bending 

 its head to tear a piece from a small 

 snake that it held in its talons, and I 

 have never seen one alight to eat its 

 food, as other birds of prey do. 



"When hunting they fly quite close 

 to the ground, like Marsh Hawks, but 

 at other times they sail above the tree 

 tops, sometimes so far above that it 

 takes a good eye to see them. Their 

 food consists almost entirely of rep- 

 tiles. Small snakes seem to be a fa- 

 vorite article of food vv^ith them. I 

 never have seen one catch a bird, and 

 believe they do not. This habit of 

 catching snakes has given them the 

 name of 'Snake Hawk' among the na- 

 tives of Florida. 



"Swallow-tailed Kites begin to ar 

 rive in this state from the south about 

 the middle of March, but do not be- 

 come common until two or three weeks 

 later. They appear to be as abundant 

 now as formerly, probably because 

 most of the tourists have left Florida 



before they arrive in any numbers. 

 Although these birds are common in 

 the southern half of St. Johns county, 

 and that part of Putnam county east 

 of the St. Johns river, and though I 

 have found quite a number of their 

 nests, I have never been able to get 

 but two sets of their eggs, owing to a 

 habit they have of building in places 

 that are very hard to reach. 



"The first nest was taken April 22, 

 1887, eleven miles north-east of Palat- 

 ka, Florida, and contained two eggs, 

 so nearly hatched that the embryos in 

 them were feathered. 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 Cyprus swamp. 

 The trunk of this tree at a height of 

 five feet above the ground was not 

 more than fifteen inches in diameter, 

 and at the place where my climber 

 stood, as he took the egg, it was less 

 than three inches, while the limbs he 

 stood on were only an inch thick. 

 The nest was composed of large twigs 

 thickly covered with Spanish moss 

 {^Tillandsia iisiicoidcs) and long moss 

 Usnca harbata), lined with the same 

 materials, with the addition of a few 

 feathers from the birds. It measured 

 twenty inches in length, fifteen in 

 width, and twelve inches in depth on 

 the outside, and six inches in diameter 

 by four inches deep on the inside. 



"The nests of this species are us- 

 ually so very irregular, that I should 

 think they simply hollowed out 

 bunches of mossy twigs that they 

 found lodged in the tops of trees, had 

 I not often seen them carrying this 

 material to nests that they were build- 

 ing. 



"Both birds were present when the 

 eggs were taken and made much ado. 



