200 
David S. Lee and Mary K. Clark 
the currently expanding ranges of the two remaining North Ameri- 
can kites: black-shouldered kite ( Elanus leucurus) and Mississippi 
kite (Ictinia mississippinsii) (Palmer 1988). Futhermore, the latter 
species occupies habitats similar to those of the swallow-tailed kite 
in the Southeast. 
Although general accounts cite habitat destruction, over- 
collecting of eggs, and shooting adult birds as primary reasons for 
the disappearance of the species from the northern portion of its 
range, this is not documented. The limited amount of existing mu- 
seum material does not support the contention that over-collecting 
occurred. Additionally, not only is the diet opportunistic, but also 
the nesting habitat discussed for former northern populations by various 
authors (see Bent 1937) does not seem restrictive. The general dis- 
appearance at the turn of the centry from northern nesting sites 
was well before the invention of persistent pesticides, and our pre- 
liminary evidence on natural mercury loads suggests that the spe- 
cies’ position in the food chain would not make it particularly vul- 
nerable to human-induced contaminants. 
Historical records indicate that the upper Mississippi basin 
population was much larger, and probably more uniformly dis- 
tributed, than the scattered records indicate. For example, Simpson 
(1972) records that swallow-tailed kites were regular late summer 
visitors in the mountains of North Carolina during the 1800s and 
had almost disappeared by 1900. Simpson attributed this loss to the 
shrinkage in the breeding range and believed that the fall migratants 
were from the breeding population in the upper midwest that were 
moving east and south down through the Appalachians. Loomis (1890) 
noted a similar situation in the mountains of South Carolina. Nev- 
ertheless, this may not be the case, and in the north the species 
may have been restricted to only a small number of relict breeding 
sites in the historical period. 
Phenology — Millsap (1987) reported on massive pre-migration 
staging at a site near Lake Okeechobee, Florida, where he observed 
large numbers of kites in communal roosts from mid-July through 
mid-August. Monitoring the following year provided additional data 
(Millsap and Runde 1988). The roost he described was used by at 
least 1,339 kites on 7 August 1987, and the kites used the roost 
from 12 July to 1 September 1988. The numbers of kites in the 
Okeechobee roost, those in other communal roosts reported on by 
Millsap and Rude (1988), and historical information on summer flocks 
(1924-82) of swallow-tailed kites in the same general area (Millsap 
1987) suggest that the low population estimates of swallow-tailed 
kites from the late 1970s may have been underestimates. As of 
