176 NOTES ON THE 



Family FALCOKID^. 



ELANOIDES FORFICATUS (L). (327.) 



SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 



For some time after I began to notice the birds here I re- 

 garded the Swallow- tailed Kite as a veritable rari avis, and 

 finding where one pair built their nest on the west side of Lake 

 Minnetonka, I made a careful note of everything pertaining to 

 their habits. Subsequently I found that the species was far 

 from being rare, indeed was comparatively common. My 

 mistake had been in looking for them on the prairies instead 

 of in the dense forests. Not one of all the species had been 

 found on any considerable prairie. In looking for the nest, 

 authorities directed me to the immediate vicinity of water. 

 Margins of lakes and running streams in or bordering large 

 bodies of tall timber were searched to the distance of a hun- 

 dred and fifty yards back from the water, but no nests were to 

 be found. In my extreme desire to gather knowledge of the 

 local habits of birds and having an opportunity to secure a 

 professional oologist, I employed him and sent him to the 

 eastern side of the lake mentioned, where, amongst a large 

 number of species I wished to learn more about, I was conn- 

 dent this one nested, for during the last days of May and in 

 early June I had year after year seen the male. He spent some 

 ten days there and brought me many items of deep interest, 

 but of my Swallow- tailed Kite, nothing. It so happened that 

 he had fallen in with a friend of mine who was as profoundly 

 interested in birds as any of us, to whom he showed a clutch 

 of six eggs just obtained from a nest of these birds far back 

 in the dense forest of maple, oak, elm and basswood, on a tree 

 at an elevation of about sixty feet, all of which my friend very 

 innocently rehearsed to me a few days later. I had never 

 seen the egg at that time and regretted above words that I 

 could not have ' 'received that which was my own", but deter- 

 mined to find the nest if possible, and did so. Everything 

 about its location seemed to preclude the presumption that 

 they would select the immediate vicinity of water. With the 

 key to the situation now in my hands, I never have since 

 thrown away precious time looking for their nests anywhere 

 but in the deep forests away from all running water. They 



