1 8 Barlow, Nesting Habits of White-tailed Kite. \j\^ 



third time and successfully reared their brood. This year the 

 birds had disappeared, and were not located in the surrounding- 

 country, so it is evident that they had been shot after inhabiting 

 the locality for at least ten years. 



On March 24, 1895, I met my second pair of birds in a region 

 similar to the last and where I had somewhat expected a pair 

 might be nesting. When incubation has well begun the female is 

 dififiicult to flush, and the male seems to make himself as inconspic- 

 uous as possible, so one might at times pass through a locality 

 inhabited by the Kites and not suspect their presence. On the 

 day in question, while walking among the trees I chanced to see a 

 Kite flying toward a cloister of oaks half a mile distant and 

 followed it. The bird, presumably the male, was perched on a 

 lofty white oak, the highest in the field, where he sat quietly. Sus- 

 pecting the female had a nest near by I began a careful search of 

 the neighboring oaks and after twenty minutes' work located the 

 nest twenty feet up in a small live oak tree. The female did not 

 leave the nest until I had almost reached in, when she flew to a 

 near-by tree and was joined by the male. The male began a 

 gallant attack in defense of the nest, swooping down on me at 

 intervals in a furious manner, being occasionally reinforced by 

 the female, while both snapped their beaks, much after the manner 

 of young Owls. The nest was unusually large, having evidently 

 been used more than once. It was lined with long dry grass, and 

 similar in other respects to the average nest. It contained five 

 heavily-marked eggs of the usual dark type, in which incubation 

 was far advanced, three of the eggs being slightly pipped. From 

 the stage of incubation it is likely that the nest was constructed 

 late in February and the eggs laid soon after. The eggs of this 

 set average 1.80 x 1.31. The clutch is now in the collection of 

 Mr. John W. Mailliard. 



This pair of birds after being robbed removed to a locality half 

 a mile away, where they soon began to construct a new nest in a 

 small oak, twenty feet from the ground. One of the birds was 

 observed to alight in the top of a tree, where it broke off a twig 

 from among some dead limbs, when it flew back to the newly begun 

 nest and deposited it. Finally the nest was completed and four 

 eggs were laid. These I collected on April 15, the female leaving 



