258 



THE OOLUGIST. 



The White-tailed Kite and Piairie Falcon in 

 California. 



White-tailed Kite, 

 There is perhaps, no raoi-e inspiring 

 a sight to the true ornithologist who 

 finds himself in the field on a Inight 

 spring day, than the dashing flight of 

 some Hawk or Falcon in pursuit of its 

 prey, cr the wonderful evolutions it 

 performs irr mid-air. There is a degree 

 of mystery attending the delicate pois- 

 ing of the Hummingbird above the 

 flower; there is something beautiful 

 about the Quail as it leaves its retreat 

 in the chapparal and is off with a whirr 

 to a place of safety, and we all love and 

 admire the beautiful songs of our small 

 birds, but where is there an equal to our 

 sublime family of Kaptores? 



The White-tailed Kite is associated 

 with my earliest experience in Ornith- 

 ologyy. Some seven years ago I fell 

 prey to the mania of collecting birds 

 eggs, which was prevalent to a great 

 degree in my locality. At that time I 

 was spending a few months on my 

 uncle's ranch in Santa Clara county 

 with an Eastern cousin. It was in 

 June when the unsurpassable climate 

 and soil of California had caused a lux- 

 uriant growth of "suckers" to form on 

 the grapevines, and thenceforth life had 

 no charms for me, as it was agreed by 

 all that 1 had talent in the line of pull- 

 ing the 'suckers" oti'the vines and ac 

 cordingly the work fell to my lot. 



Next day I was installed in my posi- 

 tion, and as I worked back and forth 

 on I he rows I had abundant time for 

 meditation. I speedh^ began to think 

 about my Aaeation, and came to the 

 conclusion that a half days' fishing 

 would be a grand thing. That evening 

 I laid the plan before my cousin who 

 consented and the following afternoon 

 was named as the time. Without going 

 into details we did three days work in 

 one foreneon and were given the after- 

 noon as I token of appreciation. 



It was with light hearts that, we 

 swung our poles over our backs and 

 started up the dust}^ road for a certain 

 spot in the foot-hills. I was as enthus- 

 iastic an oologist as ever and though it 

 was somewhat late I kept an eye out 

 for nests. Finally we crossed a field of 

 grain which was thickly studded with 

 small black oaks and while cai'elessly 

 passing under a tree I noticed a Cali- 

 fornia Towhee's nest. I immediately 

 climbed the tree but the nest proved to 

 be an old one. Before descending, I 

 paused and gazed into the lop of the 

 oak and the sight I saw was one I had 

 met onl}"^ in my most sanguine dreams. 

 There, not ten feet above me was a 

 lai'ge nest of sticks, and I lost no time 

 in making the ascent. As I gazed over 

 the edge of the nest two half-grown 

 birds brustled their feathers and crowd- 

 ed to the farther side, while snapping 

 their beaks. In the center was one I'ot- 

 ten egg. I immediately announced to 

 my cousin, "two young chicken-hawks 

 and a rotten egg." I argued that any 

 bird of prey that built a large nest of 

 sticks in a tree was a "chicken-hawk,"' 

 and was consequently seldom in doubt 

 as to identity. 



The nest in question was about a foot 

 and half in diameter and was made en- 

 tirely of sticks and twigs from some 

 dead oak tree. The depression was 

 very shallow. It was placed in the ex- 

 treme top of the black oak tree, and 

 rested on the top of a bunch of limbs,^ 

 rather than in the fork of a single 

 branch. The nest Avas over twenty 

 feet from the ground and the tree was 

 easily climbed. The half-grown birds 

 showed tight and it w^as only by the 

 use of mj' fishing pole that I succeeded 

 in getting them to terra Jirma. Duiing 

 the whole proceeding the parent birds 

 did not show themselves and as stated I 

 concluded they were "chicken hawks" 

 so we took them to a friends house two 

 miles distant aad killed them, but I 

 vei'y much regretted doing so after I 

 had correctly identified the birds. 



