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EGG CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 67 
variable in their choice of a nesting place. On Gardiner’s Island they all 
build in trees, at Cistances varying from ten to seventy-five feet from thé 
ground, but on Plum Island, where a great many breed, a large number 
place their nests ox the ground, some being built up to the height of four or 
five feet, while others are simply a few sticks arranged in a circle, and the 
eggs are laid ox the bare sand! On Shelter Island they build on the chim- 
neys of dwelling houses; and a pair has a nest on the cross-bar of a tele” 
graph pole. Another pair has a nest on a large rock in Gardiner’s Bay 
near Gardiner’s Island. Their nests are constructed chiefly of coarse 
sticks and seaweed, and whatever else the birds happen to find, such as 
pieces of dry cow dung, bones, old shoes, straw, etc. The largest clutch 
of eggs I have taken, or seen, is four. The usual number is three, 
although sets of two are common.” 
427. Elanus glaucus. 
White-tailed Kite. 
Prof. Evermann has furnished me with the following interesting account 
concerning the nidification of this beautiful species: 
‘“May 4, 1880, I found my first nest (a) of this bird: It was placed 
in the extreme top of a cottonwood, fully forty feet from the ground. It 
was not a very substantial structure, was composed of sticks, forming 
scarcely more than a mere platform, so shallow was the cavity. It was 
very sparingly lined with the inner bark of the cottonwood. All other 
nests found were the same in structure as this, except in one case (c), 
where the depth was greater, and was well lined with barley straw. The 
next (b) I found on April 11, ’81. This was in the extreme top of a live 
oak, as was also the third one (c), which I found the next day, April 12. 
On May 1, I found another (d) in the top of a cottonwood. The only im- 
portant fact regarding the position of the nest of this Kite is this: Always 
placed just as high in the tree as possible. I did not notice an exception; and 
so slender are the limbs or twigs among which it is placed, that he who 
attempts to climb to the nest stands about three chances to two of break- 
ing his neck. 
From nest ‘‘a” I got four handsome eggs, but they were somewhat 
incubated. From ‘‘b”’ four more fresh ones, (which I sent you No. 180); 
from ‘‘c’”’ I got four very fine eggs, April 12, and, on June 4, three more 
which I sent you, but which got broken, save one, I believe). In ‘‘d"’ I 
found four young, perhaps two weeks old. So, I think four eggs is the 
almost invariable number; that, when robbed of a first set, another will 
likely be laid; that they breed in the same grove—séldom in the same nest 
—year after year; that the usual time of nesting is from April 1 to May 1; 
” 
