86 THE OSPREY. 



beginning of a nest. Only for a moment did he remain; then, dropping over 

 one side of the nest, he sailed upward and rejoined his mate. 



For over an hour and a half I lay there and watched them slowly con- 

 structing their nest; both birds worked, darting in among the trees as on the 

 first occasion, and reappearing with either a twig or spray of green leaves. 

 At last, as the midday hour began to cast short shadows, one of the birds 

 perched on the edge of the nest, while its mate lit on the topmost branch of a 

 Cottonwood tree some two hundred yards away. Seeing that work had been 

 temporarily suspended, I left the locality and was unfortunately prevented from 

 making any more observations on this pair, as I had to return to the city the 

 next day. 



Any day in the summer, a few miles ride into the country will bring one 

 upon a pair of these birds, yes, often a half dozen of them. On one occasion, 

 on the 10th of last June, sixteen were seen sitting on a single dead cottonwood 

 tree. At another time I counted twelve of them, chasing what seemed to be 

 a drove of insects. 



There is no more fascinating sight than to lie under the shade of some tree 

 and watch the beautiful flight of a pair of Mississippi Kites, first skimming 

 low over the tree-tops, then ascending in ever widening circles until it is painful 

 to the eye to watch them soaring so high in the air, with never a flap of their 

 wings, but suddenly one appears to spy some choice insect far below him and, 

 half folding his wings, he shoots like a meteor, head downward, to within a few 

 feet of the earth, seizes his prey, and ascends almost as fast as he came, all this 

 without any apparent movement of the wings. When he has reached an eleva- 

 tion of seventy-five or one hundred feet, he circles about and leisurely eats his 

 grasshopper piece by piece, holding it, the while, in both feet. A specimen, 

 shot in the late summer of 1900, had just alighted after a flight in search of 

 food, and, when examined, was found to have its bill and feet covered with in- 

 sect scales, while its under tail coverts were much worn and frayed, doubtless 

 through constant contact with live insects. 



Audubon in his unrivaled "Birds of America " states that he never saw 

 the Mississippi Kite alight on the ground: I have been more fortunate in this 

 respect, for on one occasion I noticed a bird alight on the ground in a cotton 

 field and remain there at least a minute. Another thing I have noticed is, that 

 the birds will as soon alight in the top of a green tree, among the leaves, as 

 on a dead snag. In '97, before I became well acquainted with the Mississippi 

 Kite's food habits, I determined to test its beneficial qualities, so, procuring a 

 young chicken about a month old, I carried it to a well-known Kite resort, 

 and staked it out on a bare hill top. 



As I had expected, the Kites were there in full force, and I had a splendid 

 show to watch them ; at least four of them passed within fifty feet of the chicken, 



