138° * LAND BIRDS 
Elanus leucurus. 
328. WHITE-TAILED KITE. 
Famity : The Falcons, Hawks, Eagles, ete. 
Length : 15.50-17.00. 
Adults : Upper parts slate-color ; top of head and tail white ; a patch of 
black on each shoulder and around each eye ; under parts uniform 
pure white. 
Young: Similar to adults, but tinged with rusty, and more or less 
streaked with dark gray ; wing-feathers tipped with white ; under 
parts streaked with yellow-brown ; tail with a dusky band. 
. Geographical Distribution : Tropical America north to San Francisco on 
the Pacific coast ; on the Atlantic coast to latitude 37°. 
Breeding Range: The central portions of California, west of the Sierra 
Nevada. 
Breeding Season: April 1 to June 1. 
Nest: Placed high in a tree; a platform of sticks, lined with straw and 
grasses. 
Eggs: 3 to 5; dull buffy white, spotted and tinged with chestnut over 
the entire surface. Size 1.72 X 1.30. 
THE White-tailed Kite is a fairly common resident of the 
interior valleys of California west of the Sierra Nevada, 
north to Red Bluff and south as far as Los Angeles. — Its 
nest is always placed just as far from the ground as pos- 
sible, in a sycamore or oak or maple tree, and is a 
loosely constructed platform of sticks, occasionally lined 
with straw. In Santa Clara valley the birds are not at 
all uncommon ; they nest in the oak groves from April 1 
to May 1. They remain paired all the year, and may be 
seen hunting together over the fresh and salt water 
marshes. Mr. W. K. Fisher records them as_ preying 
upon the field mice in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. 
They are common at Alviso in the early morning, hover- 
ing over the marshes, as kingfishers do over water, be- 
fore plunging downward for a strike. Graceful and easy 
