Widrnann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 89 



Missouri have met with the species at one time or another. 

 Audubon saw one near the northwest corner of the state, May 

 10; 1843, probably near its breeding ground. Dr. Hoy has it 

 in his Hst of birds observed in western Missouri between April 

 16 and June 15, 1854. Scott noted it once at Warrensburg, 

 April 15, 1874. In his "Birds of the North-West" Dr. Coues 

 writes on page 333: '^I had the pleasure of observing it myself 

 in Missouri opposite Fort I.eavenworth in May 1864." Earty in 

 the eighties Mr. Nehrling found it a pretty regular visitant in 

 Lawrence Co. Mr. Jul. Hurter once observed a troop of 40 in 

 early August in the city of St. Louis remaining in the same 

 locality over a week. In 1884 Mrs. Musick saw them repeatedly 

 in troops of six to eight at Mt. Carmel, Audrain Co. It was 

 also reported from Fayette, May 9 and 25, 1884. There is also 

 one date saved from my old notes lost by fire, August 20, 1885, 

 St. Louis. Mr. Currier and Mr. Praeger give me the following 

 dates of occurrence at Keokuk : March 2 and March 19 (unusually 

 early) and May 13, 1897. Mr. Tindall saw one July 16, 1904, at 

 Independence, and Mr. Bush, August 30, August 31 and Septem- 

 ber 4, 1906, at Courtney. Fine specimens taken in the state 

 are in the Hurter collection at St. Louis, in the Eimbeck col- 

 lection at New Haven, in the Kastendieck collection at BilHngs, 

 and one taken by Mr. Ollie C. Shelley at Independence loaned 

 to the Public Museum of Kansas City. 



[328. Elanus leucurus (VieilL). White-tailed Kite.] 



MUwrS leucurus. Falco dispar. Elanus glaucus. Elanus dispar. Black- 

 shouldered Hawk. 



Geog. Dist. — From Chile and Buenos Ayres to South Carolina 

 on the east (except West Indies), Indian Territory and Texas 

 in the interior, and northern California on the Pacific. Rare 

 within the United States except in California, where fairly 

 common. 



There is one record from southern Illinois where Mr. R. 

 Ridgway observed a pair at Mt. Carmel in the summer of 1863 

 or 1864. In Mrs. Bailey's "Handbook of the Birds of Western 

 United States,'' the species is said to occur to the latitude of 

 St. Louis in the interior, but no record of its occurrence in 

 Missouri has been obtained. If it enters our state, it is probably 

 as an accidental visitant from the southwest. 



