AM K It H: AX BllflJlS. 201 



seven nests on the 22d of May; on the 31st he collected four sets of eggs containing 

 two each and one nest contained a single egg. June 10th, two more sets of two eggs 

 each were taken Col. Goss describes ihe 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, 1.55x1.33, 1.52x1.36; second, 1.76x1.48, 1.65x1.35; third, 1.70x1.39, 

 -l.56xl.35; fourth, 1.70x1.37, 1.68x1.30; fifth, 1.75x1.30; 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.* Mr. R. E. 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. The average measurement of ten specimens is 1.64x1.28. 



330. EVERGLADE KITE. Rostrhamus tfociabilis (Vieill.) Geog. Dist. Flori- 

 da, 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 Panasofkee Lake, 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.f 

 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 are deposited. The nests are 

 built in tall, rank grass and bushes; especially in the saw-grasses, about a foot below 

 the tops, just so as to be out of sight, and the nests are usually composed of the 

 same material; they measure about a foot in diameter, with a cavity three inches 

 deep. Mr. H. B. Bailey describes a set of three eggs, taken in the Everglades, 

 March 16, by E. W. Montreuil; their sizes are 1.91x1.50, 1.80x1.51, 1.80x1.45; the 

 color of one is light brown, nearly obscured by large blotches of dark and reddish- 

 brown; another has a dirty-white ground color, with spots and blotches of various 

 shades of brown, which become smaller and fewer at the smaller end. It resembles 

 the common varieties of eggs of the European Sparrow Hawk, Accipiter nism. The 

 third is of a greenish-white, over the smaller end are scrawls, lines and a few spots 

 of light and dark brown.J 



331. MARSH HAWK. Circus hndsonius (Linn.) Geog. Dist. Whole of 

 North America, south in winter to Panama, the Bahamas and Cuba. 



The Marsh Hawk, Blue Hawk, or Harrier, is distributed throughout the whole 

 of North America. It is one of the most abundant and widely diffused of our birds, 

 and breeds from the fur country of Hudson Bay to Texas, and from Nova Scotia to 

 Oregon and California. It is found especially in regions covered by bushes, small 

 trees, rank grass, swamp prairies or marshy places. Here the nest may be found, 



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

 t'Bu'l Nutt. Club. Vol. VI, p. 16. 

 t Auk, I, p. 95. 



