NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 167 



sticks and green twigs in leaf for lining. It was placed in a medium- 

 sized oak about forty feet from the ground. The egg, which was ad- 

 vanced in incubation, he describes a pure white, size 1.70x1.35.* 



Col. Goss also observed the Mississippi Kite nesting in the timber 

 lands bordering Medicine River, near Sun City, Barber county, Kansas, 

 and found seven nests on the 22d of May ; on the 3ist he collected four 

 sets of eggs containing two each, and one nest contained a single egg. 

 June loth, two more sets of two eggs each were taken. Col. Goss de- 

 scribes the eggs as " white or bluish-white;" the last two sets were 

 stained by the wet leaves in the nests. The eggs measure by sets as 

 follows : First, 1.55 x 1.33, 1.52 x 1.36 ; second, 1.76 x 1.48, 1.65 x 1.35 ; 

 third, 1.70x1.39, 1.56x1.35; fourth, 1.70x1.37, 1.68x1.30; fifth, 1.75 

 xi. 30; sixth, 1.54x1.31, 1.45x1.24; seventh, 1.70x1.38, 1.68x1.43. 

 The nests were all built either in the forks from the main body, or in 

 the forks of the larger limbs of the cottonwood and elm trees, and when 

 old would be taken for the nests of the common Crow. Their height 

 from the ground ranged from twenty-five to fifty feet, f 



Mr. R. K. Rachford informs me that he took two sets of the eggs 

 of this species in Texas from nests situated about thirty feet from the 

 ground in oak trees. The color of the eggs he describes as white, with 

 a slight greenish tinge. 



330. Rostrhamus sociabilis (VIEILL). [429.] 



Everglade Kite. 



Hab. Florida, Atlantic coast of Mexico, part of West Indies, Central America, Eastern portion of 

 South America to the Argentine Republic. 



This slate-colored Kite is a resident of the Everglades of Florida, 

 and also occurs in the fresh water marshes and lakes of the middle 

 and southern portions of the State. 



Mr. W. E. D. Scott found it abundant at Panasof kee L,ake, about 

 February first, where it was feeding on a kind of fresh-water snail, 

 which was very abundant, and the local name given the bird is 

 " Snail Hawk." The birds fish over shallow water, after the manner 

 of gulls ; securing a snail by diving, they carry it to the most available 

 perch, when the animal is dexterously taken from the shell without 

 injury to the latter. At many places where a particularly convenient 

 tree or stub rises out of the saw-grass, the ground is literally heaped 

 with the empty shells of the snails. J 



The nesting season of this species in the Everglades of Florida is 

 in March, some pairs breeding later than others, and two or three eggs 



*Auk, Vol. II, p. 21. 



f Auk, Vol. IV, pp. 344-345. 



I Bull. Nutt. Club, Vol. VI, p. 16. 



