Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 71 



The Mississippi Kite breeds regularly in considerable numbers 

 near Charleston, but in the region about Yemassee and the lower 

 Savannah River it breeds more abundantly. A pair of these 

 kites have bred, for ten consecutive years, within a mile of my 

 house, and have used the same nest for five years. On May 28, 

 1898, I succeeded in finding a man who had the courage to climb 

 the gigantic pine in which the kites had a nest. This nest was 

 111 feet and 7 inches from the ground and contained one egg. 

 The egg, which was the first one ever taken in this state, was sent 

 to Dr. William L. Ralph, and is now in the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. On May 29, 1902, a single egg, which contained a good 

 sized embryo, was taken from the same nest. In 1903 and 1904, 

 the birds were found breeding within a hundred yards of their 

 former nest, but the tree was so immense that I could not secure 

 a climber. On May 27, 1905, I found that the kites had occupied 

 the nest they had built and used in the years of 1903 and 1904, 

 and I engaged a man who ascended the tree and lowered the single 

 egg which it contained. This nest was in the top of a gigantic 

 short-leaf pine, 135 feet from the ground, and the egg contained 

 a large embryo. 



The eggs are of a dull bluish white, generally nest-stained, and 

 measure 1.60x1.31. In the region about Yemassee, and to the 

 southward, this species certainly lays from two to three eggs. 

 The young are able to fly short distances by July 29, and by Oc- 

 tober 4, the birds have left the country for the south, where they 

 winter in Mexico and Central America. 



The food of this species consists almost entirely of insects and 

 lizards, and it is therefore beneficial to the agriculturist. 



The Mississippi Kite is often seen in company with the Black 

 Vulture, soaring at a great elevation, and it can always be iden- 

 tified when on the wing by the squareness of its wings and tail. 



135. Circus hudsonius (Linn.). Marsh Hawk. 



The Marsh Hawk is an exceedingly abundant winter visitant 

 on and near the coast, where it frequents the salt and freshwater 

 marshes, as well as fields of broom grass. This species destroys 

 numbers of Wayne's Clapper Rails {Rallus crepitans waynei), 

 which it catches with ease, as well as Bob-white and smaller 

 birds. The females and young males outnumber the adult males 

 in the proportion of about fifty to one. 



