ANDERSON — THE BIRDS OF IOWA. ' 243 



the timber skirting the streams. At Denison, in the timber of 

 the Boyer River, they were very common and nesting ; the nests 

 being placed on horizontal branches, at some distance from the 

 trunk. By the middle of July the young had not flown. With 

 a peculiarly graceful, .swallow-like flight this beautiful bird was 

 .seen not infrequently .skimming over the prairie, .singly or two or 

 three in company, eagerly .searching for their reptile food." John 

 Krider (Forty Years' Notes, 1879, 10) .says: "I have found it 

 very abundant in Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas, where they breed. 

 The first nest I found was at Coon Lake, Iowa. I watched the 

 birds building, and only obtained one egg, which is now in the 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C." Baird, Brewer and 

 Ridgway (N. A. Birds, iii, 1875, 192) describe an egg taken in 

 Iowa by Krider; and Bendire, in his " Life Histories," figures a 

 type specimen of an egg taken in Blackhawk county, June 3, 

 1S75. Morton E. Peck writes me that it "once bred regularly 

 in Blackhawk and Benton counties, where a number of .sets of 

 eggs were taken by George D. Peck, the last in about 1877. At 

 present it rarel}- if ever appears in the county." 



Various observers give the food of this species as consisting 

 chiefly of snakes, frogs and grasshoppers. It has been recorded 

 in Iowa at various dates from April until December, but the 

 larger number of specimens appear to be seen in September. 



Genus Ictinia Vieillot. 



136. (329). Ictinia mississippicnsis (Wils.). Mississippi Kite. 



Though the Mis.sissippi Kite has been quoted by nearly all 

 authorities as ranging north " casually to Iowa and Wisconsin," 

 I was for a long time constrained to place it in the hypothetical 

 li.st for want of a definite, authentic record of its capture in Iowa. 

 It has been referred nominally to Iowa by Thomas Say, Baird, 

 Brewer and Ridgway, Allen, Goss, Fisher, Coues, Ridgway, 

 Bendire and others, but no recent records have appeared in print. 



County records: Blackhawk — "only one observed here. I 

 remained over half an hour within twenty feet of the bird when 

 it was resting on a post in hedge, so that identification is posi- 

 tive " (Salisbury). Linn — "rare summer resident" (Berry). 

 Van Buren — " a kite of this species occurred one .spring on Big 

 Cedar at a certain place and stayed four or five weeks, then dis- 



