18S4.] iiencral Notes. QC 



Breeding Habits of the Everglade Kite. — My friend, Mr. E. W. Montreuil, 

 had the good fortune this season, while on a collecting trip to Florida, to 

 take a set of eggs of the Everglade Kite, which are now in my possession. 

 As there are so few descriptions of the eggs of this species on record 

 the following notes may be of interest. The eggs measure as follows: 

 1.91 X 1.50; 1.80 X 1. 51 ; i.So X 1.45 (measurements in hundredths of an 

 inch). No. i has a ground-color of light brown, nearly obscured by large 

 blotches of dark brown, in some places becoming reddish-brown. No. 2 

 has the ground-color a dirty white, covered on the larger end by spots and 

 blotches of different shades of brown, which become smaller and fewer at 

 the other end. This specimen resembles the common varieties of eggs of 

 the European Sparrow Hawk {Accipiter nistis). Number 3 has a clear 

 ground-color of greenish-white, and on the smaller end are scrawls, lines, 

 and a few spots of light and dark brown. These eggs are larger than those 

 collected by Mr. C. J. Maynard some years since in the Everglades. 



I will quote in full from a letter received from Mr. Montreuil about the 

 breeding habits of this Kite. "This bird {Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbctts) 

 is found in numbers in the Everglades of Florida, especially on the east 

 side. They lay their eggs early in March, but some pairs later than others, 

 as the set you have were taken March 16 and were fresh, while all the 

 other nests had young in them. When they breed a male and female are 

 by theinselves, always near a small island, which they make their rendez- 

 vous, and while resting on a branch they can have an eye on their nest for 

 enemies, especially the Crows, who rob their nests whenever they can. 

 Around some of the islands there are several pairs of Rostrhamus, but 

 they always place their nests a few acres apart from each other. While 

 going about in an Indian canoe you see the bird flying around, up and 

 down, their wings straight open, fishing for the Everglade shells which are 

 their principal food. When through with their meals they go back to 

 their nests with food for the young, and then they can easily be discov- 

 ered. They build their nests with dry branches and saw-grasses, attached 

 to saw-grasses, about 12 inches below the tops, just so as to be out of sight. 

 They measure about 12 inches in diameter and 6 inches high, and the 

 cavity is about 3 inches deep. They lay from two to three eggs. The old 

 birds usually bring their throats full of the animals of the Everglade shells, 

 but sometimes they bring the animal in the shell, as many nests contained 

 a lot of these shells. While they have young they are not wild, flying 

 over one's head when near the nest." — H. B. Bailey, Nezv Tork City. 



Nesting of the Broad-winged Hawk {Buteo pennsylvait feus) . — As but 

 very few of the nests of this species have been described, an account of 

 one taken b_v myself, about two miles north of this city, on June 23, 1883, 

 may not be considered superfluous. It was built in a large yellow birch 

 tree, near the margin of a rather open wood, which was composed of 

 mixed birch, spruce, and hackmatac, and which adjoined a dense cedar 

 swamp.. The nest was placed in a fork of the tree, about thirty feet from 

 the ground, and was composed, exteriorly, of dried twigs of hackmatac and 



