KITES, HAWKS, AND EAGLES: Family Accipitriidae [ 181 ] 



Oregon species rest on the observations of those quoted above, except 

 the account of Finley (icpSa), who referred to two at Drain about July 4, 

 1903, and four in March 1904. These birds were observed by George and 

 Henry Peck, both familiar with the condor in California and both good 

 ornithologists, who further stated that one was killed on the coast of 

 southern Oregon. It is impossible that these observers, all keen and 

 experienced naturalists, could have been mistaken, but the condor, if 

 ever common in this State, seems to have become rare or almost com- 

 pletely extinct between Douglas' visit and the time of the Pacific Railway 

 Surveys. Jewett has talked to several well-informed woodsmen who 

 described accurately to him condors seen in southern Oregon at about 

 the time of the Peck observation, and it seems highly probable that two 

 or more of these big birds strayed into southern Oregon, perhaps to 

 remain for some time. 



Kites, Hawks, and Eagles: Family Accipitriidae 



White-tailed Kite: 



Elanus leucurus majusculus Bangs and Penard 



DESCRIPTION. "Bill rather weak and compressed; feet very small; tarsus feathered 

 half way down in front, and below covered with minute roundish scales; claws not 

 grooved beneath; hind toe very short, claws all small and little curved; wings 

 nearly or about twice as long as tail, pointed, first and second quills emarginate, the 

 feathers broad, obtuse at tips. Adults: under parts white, upper parts plain bluish 

 gray, except for white top of head and tail, and black patches around eye and on shoulders. 

 Young: resembling adults, but tinged with rusty, extensively on under parts; upper 

 parts indistinctly streaked; wing feathers tipped with white; tail with an indistinct 

 subterminal band. Length: 15.15-16.75, wing 11.50-13.30, tail 5.90-7.40, bill 

 .65-. 80." (Bailey) Nest: Of twigs, lined with grasses and other dried vegetation. 

 Eggs: 3 to 5, white, heavily marked with red and brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeding bird in California valleys, Texas, Oklahoma, and 

 Florida. In Oregon: Rare straggler, on basis of statements below. 



JEWETT (1933), who spent his boyhood years in California and who at 

 that time was thoroughly familiar with the White-tailed Kite, has pub- 

 lished a note in the Murrelet that reads as follows: 



Some eight or ten years ago, Mr. Ben Hur Lampman, editorial writer of the Portland 

 Oregonian, while fishing at Blue Lake in the Columbia River flats a few miles east of Port- 

 land, Oregon, saw a bird which he described accurately, and it could be none other than the 

 White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus}. Mr. Lampman was positive of this at the time and his 

 description certainly verified his identification of the bird in life. No mention of this incident 

 appeared in any of the ornithological journals. 



On February 2.3, 1933, while I was on the Honeyman estate near Scappoose, Oregon, on 

 the Columbia River bottoms some 2.0 miles west of Portland, with Game Protector Chester 

 Leichhardt, one of these birds was seen at close range by both of us. We made careful obser- 



