The OoLOGiST. 



VOL. XII. NO. 6. 



ALBION, N. Y., JUNE, 1895. 



Whole No. 116 



In the Haunts of the "White-tailed Kite- 



What a flood of varied and pleasing 

 memories does this bring to the mind 

 of the writer, who, through a fortunate 

 chain of circumstances has been per- 

 mitted to spend considerable time dur- 

 ing the present season in the localities 

 favored by these beautiful birds. The 

 handsome sets of eggs which help to 

 form a part of a series of raptores, re- 

 present to the collector many long 

 morning tramps through the woodland 

 still sparkling with the dew of the early 

 houi's, and walks through clover-grown 

 fields whence comes the fragrant odor 

 of Nature's breathing, — everything 

 seemingly in harmony with the nature 

 of the gentle Kites. 



Imagine if you can a field of waving 

 grain dotted through out with the 

 sturdy, beautiful live oak from which 

 come the varied pleasing songs of the 

 smaller birds and you have a typical 

 home of the Kites. In this portion of 

 the United States we have no hand- 

 somer representative of the raptores 

 than the White-tailed Kite [Elamis leuc- 

 urus) and though its flight ordinai'ily is 

 not as that of the dashing Falcon, none 

 can surpass it in point of elegance and 

 beauty. When seen in the early morn- 

 ing hovering over the tree-tops or 

 gracefully sailing about the fields, its 

 black shoulders in contrast to is light 

 mantle make it an object of admiration. 

 I believe that this Kite is usually resi- 

 dent wherever found, i-emaining 

 throughout the year near its nesting 

 ground. Occasionally stray birds are 

 met with in winter, skimming over the 

 marshes where they presumably go in 

 quest of food. 



From personal observations and com- 

 parisons 1 believe that in the past ten 



years this bird has deci'eased materially 

 in this portion of California, partly 

 through civilization encroaching upon 

 its breeding grounds and again at the 

 hand of the so-called sportsman, to 

 whom it falls an easy prey, as its flight 

 ordinarily is even and quite moderate. 

 That this bird is beneficial to the agri- 

 culturalist there can be no doubt for its 

 food is made up almost entirely of liz- 

 ards, field mice, gophers and other 

 small rodents and occasionally a squir- 

 rel, though it is probable that they sel- 

 dom attempt to prey on the latter owing 

 to its size. Mr. H. Ward Carriger of 

 Sonoma noted the body of a ground 

 squirrel partly eaten lodged in the tree 

 beneath a nest and as it was freshly 

 killed it had no doubt been captured 

 by one of the Kites. I have never had 

 an opportunity to detei'mine just how 

 the young are fed, but a fact which I 

 have noted in connection with several 

 nests leads me to believe that the 

 young birds disgorge the skin and other 

 indigestible portions of I heir food. I 

 have examined several old nests of the 

 Kite in which young had been raised 

 and in every instance they were strewn 

 with small pellets resembling in ap- 

 pearance the shi'unken remains of a 

 small mouse, and as these were noted 

 in all old nests I have attributed the 

 fact to the young ejecting them as do 

 the owls. I have never found these 

 pellets in nests containing eggs. 



The Kite searches for food in a man- 

 ner very similar to the Sparrow Hawk, 

 often hovering for some time over its 

 prey before descending upon it. Dur- 

 ing the heat of the day they will sit for 

 long intervals on some tree-top mo- 

 tionless and uttering not a note. This 

 is especially so with the male when he 

 is on guard duty, while his mate is in- 



