772 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Nest, of sticks and moss, in tops of tall trees. Eggs, 2-3; white, 

 sometimes with greenish or yellowish tinge, spotted and blotched with 

 brown, chestnut and umber; 1.87 by 1.49. 



Rare summer resident in the southwestern part of the State; of 

 rare and irregular occurrence northward. Wilson says of this graceful, 

 swallow-like Kite, that it "is very abundant in South Carolina and 

 Georgia, and still more so in west Florida, and the extensive prairies 

 of Ohio and Indiana territory." (Am. Orn., VI, 1812, p. 70). They 

 continued to grow less in numbers year after year. In Ohio, for 

 twenty years after 1858, there was no record. From the time of Wil- 

 son down to the year 1882, a period of seventy years, with the single 

 exception reported from Franklin County by Dr. Haymond (Indiana 

 Geol. Rept., 1869, p. 210), it was not reported from Indiana north of 

 the lower Wabash River. There Dr. F. Stein killed three, two males 

 and female, in one season. Mr. Robert Ridgway noted it as a summer 

 resident, but much less common than formerly. The specimen seen by 

 Dr. Haymond was shot eleven miles below Brookville. It had been 

 feeding upon beetles and cat-birds' eggs, which it had swallowed with- 

 out breaking (Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., November, 1856, p. 287). 



Since 1882, whether because of increase of the number of observers 

 or of its occurring more often, it has been noted several times north of 

 the region named. A pair was shot, June 19, 1882, in Monroe County, 

 Mich. (Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, October, 1882, p. 250). It was noted 

 in the following Indiana counties: Decatur, July, 1883 (Guthrie); 

 Monroe, two, August 18, 1885 (Evermann); Allen, one, about 1885 

 (Stockbridge); Clinton, one, killed near Frankfort, July, 1885, and 

 now in the possession of a man near there (Newlin); Mr. E. J. Chans- 

 ler notes a pair in Knox County, in August, 1890, one of which is pre- 

 served by Mr. J. Freeman, Bicknell, Ind. He also reports another 

 one seen April 11, 1894. Mr. J. A. Balmer mentions it, from Knox 

 County. Mr. J. G. Parker, Jr., writes me of a'male shot at Lake View, 

 111., fifty miles north of Chicago, June 5, 1895. Their nesting time is 

 from April to June. It will be observed that its distribution in this 

 State corresponds closely with that of the original prairies. It has 

 never been known to breed in Indiana, though I should not be sur- 

 prised to learn that it does. Audubon found a nest near the Falls of 

 the Ohio in 1820, which contained four young. They feed upon 

 lizards, tree-toads, toads, grasshoppers, beetles and other insects, and 

 they are decidedly beneficial. It is said to feed extensively on the 

 cotton worm during the summer and early fall. 



