4c £be Warbler 



but the structure was not finished until two weeks later. On May 2 I saw 

 one of the old birds disappear in the top of the tree in a rather quiet and 

 peculiar way. It poised for a few moments over the tree, then it suddenly 

 hovered down and did not appear again. As this tree was provided with 

 branches about 25 feet from the ground clear up to the nest it was compara- 

 tively easy to climb. The breeding bird did not leave the nest until I was 

 close to it. Then it darted off in a perpendicular way, screaming terribly as 

 it left. In a very short time quite a number of Kites assembled around me, 

 but they came not so near as in the first case. The nest was built in a sim- 

 ilar way as the first one. It contained two fresh eggs which showed a de- 

 cidedly greenish-white ground color, but after preparing them this color 

 changed to a dull white. Four other nests which I examined May 9, May 

 11, May 17 and May 19 all contained two eggs, save one which had only a 

 single specimen. Several boys climbed other trees for me later in the sea- 

 son, but all contained young, mostly two, and in one case three. In one 

 case I had almost reached the nest but the birds, about ten in number, at- 

 tacked me so furiously that I had to retreat. The tree was a very slender 

 one, without any branches except in the crown, and I could not use my arms 

 to keep the vigilant creatures in check. 



In Florida this Kite usually nests in tall slender pines, usually near cy- 

 press swamps. Though I have frequently seen the nests I never was able 

 to examine them. Dr. William L,. Ralph, who had excellent opportunities 

 to observe these birds in Florida, gives a good account of his observations in 

 Charles Bendier's " Life Histories of North American Birds." (Smithsonian 

 Institution. General Bulletin I, pp. 169- 171). Dr. Ralph's observations of 

 the birds' approaching and leaving the nest agree so well with my own that 

 I cannot refrain from quoting them in full : " The Swallow-tailed Kite has 

 a peculiar way of leaving its nest, for instead of flying directly from one side, 

 as other birds do, it nearly always rises straight up for a short distance first, 

 as if it were pushed up with a spring, and, when about to alight on its nest, 

 it will poise itself a short distance above its eggs and then gradually lower 

 itself down on to them. When they are thus poised above their nests there 

 is scarcely a preceptible movement of their wings, and they often lower 

 themselves so gradually that one can hardly tell when they have reached 

 their eggs " 



As a rule the birds are rarely molested while breeding, their nests being 

 out of reach of the common nest robber — human or animal. In Florida tour- 

 ists frequently use the birds while flving through the air as targets. For 

 this reason they usually breed in uninhabited localities and are, as a rule, 

 very timid and shy. 



After the young have left the nest the families are often seen in the air 

 arorrnd their old home or they are hunting for insects over cotton and corn* 

 fields and around cattle. They are never seen on the ground. In the early 



