The White-tailed Kite 



Dr. Grinnell: 1 "With no doubt whatever, the present rarity of this hawk 

 in California is due to the associational preference for marshes, where its 

 habit of flying slowly back and forth at a moderate height above the 

 ground in the lookout for meadow mice and insects makes it an easy target 

 for the thoughtless gunner. In my experience the average sportsman is 

 still unenlightened enough to shoot down any sort of 'hawk' that flies his 

 way, provided game is not at the moment expected." Yet this is the bird 

 of which Cooper (following Heermann) could write in the Sixties: 2 "This 

 beautiful and harmless species is quite abundant in the middle districts of 

 California, remaining in large numbers during winter among the extensive 

 tule marshes of the Sacramento and other valleys." 



The slender, graceful proportions of this bird are not provided in 

 order that the owner may excel in speed, for it never catches anything 

 a-wing more important than insects, but rather that it may maintain 

 itself aloft with ease, and prosper in the eyes of its fellows. The White- 

 tailed Kite, although the soul of modesty in other respects, is quite aware 

 of his skill as an acrobat and takes conscious delight in doing perfectly 

 needless stunts for the edification and envy of the beholder. On the 

 other hand, partly by reason of its superb equipment, its ordinary soaring 

 or fluttering flight may appear a little labored ; and when it stops suddenly 

 midair with a great fanfare of wings, one imagines that its engine is missing 

 or that it is going to do a tail-spin, whereas the bird only wishes to inspect 

 a lowly crawling cricket. This Kite is by nature unsuspicious, or even 

 confiding; but gunfire has taught it some discretion, and as often as a 

 human appears, the bird edges away without undue evidence of alarm. 

 When disturbed, it is likely to give vent to a peculiar penetrating cry 

 (miscalled a whistle) clewk-clewk. The color-pattern of the bird, black 

 and white and gray, makes it the most conspicuous of hawks; and nature 

 never intended that hostile attention should be provoked by its inno- 

 cent gambols. 



White-tailed Kites are more or less gregarious, getting along quite 

 amicably with their fellows, even in the breeding season. Their presence 

 would be a benediction to the farmer, for their prey consists entirely of 

 rats, snakes, gophers, mice, and any other of the gnawing gentry, besides 

 a few frogs, crickets, and grasshoppers. If we could persuade ourselves 

 to regard our own welfare, this altogether desirable citizen might even 

 yet be restored to the exercise of his ancient franchise. We bird-lovers 

 will stuff the ballot box, if need be, in his behalf. 



These Kites nest at moderate heights in willow trees, or other con- 

 venient cover, in the vicinity of their chosen swamps. Mr. Lawrence 



1 Condor Wol. XVI.. p. 42. 



2 Ornithology of California, Vol. I , p. 488. 



165O 



