GRACEFUL FLIGHT OF THE KITE 



73 



spirals, like an expert skater "showing off." Its flight is in- 

 deed the poetry of motion in mid-air. 



Unfortunately, this beautiful bird is not of wide distri- 

 bution in the North, for its real home is in the tropics. In 



SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 



the United States it migrates in April northward into Iowa, 

 Minnesota, Illinois, southern Michigan and at rare intervals 

 farther east and west to the Carolinas and the plains. So far 

 as known, its food consists exclusively of small reptiles and 

 large insects. 



This bird fitly represents the whole group of Kites, of 

 which the White- Tailed Kite is the Pacific coast species. The 

 Mississippi Kite inhabits the Gulf states, and the Everglade 

 Kite reaches our country only in Florida. 



