48 



THE OOLOGIST 2-5 (.^"> ; ^"^^^ 



the braver and seemed utterly fear- 

 less. She sat close by and at times 

 dived straight at me and I really be- 

 lieve I could have killed her vs^ith the 

 club I carried. She is certainly the 

 most vicious bird I ever met. The 

 cause of the rumpus was two husky 

 youngsters sitting up in the nest and 

 taking it all in. 



As they were successful in rearing 

 a 'brood this season, I hope to make 

 their acquaintance again next year. 

 R. B. Simpson. 



NOTE: — Other articles descriptive 

 of this same pair of birds have here- 

 tofore been published in THE OOLO- 

 GIST as follows: 



Volume 26, page 85; page 119. 



The King Rail Nesting Near 

 Wasliington, D, C. 



May 30, 1910, while wading through 

 a cat-tail swamp in Virginia, two 

 miles southwest of Washington, D. C, 

 in search of nests of the Long-billed 

 March Wren, a large bird flopped from 

 its nest in the center of a large clump 

 of long marsh grass and hid in the 

 grass nearby. I soon scared it, and 

 as it flew away I had a good view of 

 it. 



On going back to the nest I found 

 it to contain ten heavily incubated 

 eggs. I at once went back to the city 

 for a kodak and returned and took 

 two exposures, both of which turned 

 out to be very iDoor. 



The nest was only a large depres- 

 sion, well lined with dry marsh grass, 

 and was only a few inches above the 

 water. 



I also found many nests of the Long- 

 billed Marsh Wren containing from 

 three to six eggs respectively. Some 

 were fresh and some heavily incubat- 

 ed. The Wrens were numerous. 



S. S. Dickey. 



Waynesburg, Pa. 



Tlie IVIississippj Kite. 



While in Woods County, Oklahoma 

 in June, 1910, I took my collecting- 

 box, lunch and fleld glass, on the- 

 24th, and started for a day with the 

 Mississippi Kite. After tramping for 

 about four miles, I came to White 

 Horse Creek, a small stream, dry at 

 this time, but with a fringe of elms- 

 and cotton woods on either side, 

 which affords a nesting place for this- 

 handsome Kite. After following down 

 stream for a couple of miles, I spied 

 a rather bushy elm, standing by it- 

 self, some twenty yards from the main 

 fringe. As I came up Mrs. Kite left 

 her nest and commenced flying in 

 wide circles around the tree, uttering 

 her shrill and rather mournful cry. 



The nest was twelve feet up on a 

 horizontal limb; the tree was an easy 

 one, so it took me about three seconds 

 to reach the nest, which contained a 

 set of two beauties, though I after- 

 wards found them to be badly incubat- 

 ed. 



While I was examining the nest and 

 eggs, two more Kites joined the own- 

 er. It was a fine sight, the three grace- 

 ful birds flying in a circle crossing 

 each other's path, with motionless 

 wings, using their long tails to steer 

 to a higher or lower plane, or gaining 

 headway with swift regular wing 

 beats. 



The presence of a third Kite gave 

 rise to suspicions of another nest 

 somewhere near, so after carefully 

 packing the set of two, I started in 

 search, and finally located it, about 

 two hundred yards farther down on 

 the other side of the creek, in an elm 

 tree seventeen feet up. 



It contained a single egg, slightly 

 smaller than the set of two, and nest 

 stained. It was left, in hopes of the 

 Kite laying another. 



Another nest was found about a 



