Oct. 1886.] 
AND OOLOGIST 
165 
Nesting of the Swallow-tailed Kite. 
BY J. A. SINGLEY, GIDDINGS, LEE CO., TEXAS. 
Having been so fortunate as to take two more 
sets of the Swallow-tailed Kite {Elanoidesfm-fieutus) 
during the past season, I can add more evidence 
as to the number of eggs in a set laid by this 
species. 
The first set was taken on the llth of April. 
The nesr, as usual, was placed at the extremity 
of a limb, almost at tlie top oi a majestic cotton- 
wood tree, and directly on tlie bank of a small 
stream. The eggs, two in number, were of a 
reddish tint. No. 1 measured 1.82x1.43; No. 2, 
1.78x1.46. No. 1 was finely marked ; the larger 
end being entirely covered with a rich brown, 
concealing the ground color and running up in 
irregular points past the larger part of the egg. 
No. 2 was ordinary, being marked with a few 
small blotches of an umber color and large shell 
markings of an obscure lilac. It can be best 
described as purple, brushed over with a thin 
coat of whiting. As the nest could not be ap- 
proached within ten feet, and the eggs liad to be 
“scooped” out with a minature insect net at the 
end of a pole, 1 cannot give dimensions of nest, 
wdiich was built of sticks and the usual compli- 
ment of green moss. Tlie young chick was full 
formed in the egg, though soft — proving that the 
set was complete. 
The second set was brought me by one of my 
collectors, on April 27th. His notes read : “Nest 
in a large pin-oak tree at extremity of a nearly 
horizontal limb, about sixty feet up and twenty- 
five feet from top of the tree. Built of Spanish 
I 
! 
i 
moss, entirely concealing the sticks used in build- 
ing. Eggs taken out of nest with small bag tied 
to the end of my fishing pole. Both birds show- 
ing fight.” I did not wonder at the kites showing 
wlien I tried to blow the egg, as incubation was 
so lar advanced that the young birds were nearly 
dry in the egg. They would have hatched in the 
next three days. I dialled a one-eighth inch hole 
in the eggs, and putting them in a box, hole 
downwards, I set the box on a bed of the “Texas 
Cutting Ant” and they finished the cleaning pro- 
cess during the next twenty-four hours. I have 
saved many sets of eggs of hawks and owls in 
this manner. 
The set, as is usual, contained two eggs, meas- 
uring 1.85x1.47 and 1.79x1.43. Ground color 
was dirty white (probably stained,) and irregular- 
ly marked with spots and blotches of dull brown 
— in the smaller egg tending to form a ring 
around the smaller end. I have lieard of a set of 
three being taken in the Colorado River bottoms, 
but can get no jrarticulars. I have a record of 
thirteen nests having been found containing eggs 
or young, and in only one instance — a nest with 
three young — was tliere more than two eggs or 
young in the nest. Can it be that Audubon de- 
pended ujjon hearsay in stating that four to six 
was the number of eggs in a set ? Very often the 
boys whom I employ to collect tell me that they 
have found nests of the Red-bellied Hawk with 
four or five eggs ; tliose of the Turkey Buzzard 
with three to four eggs; and Swallow-tailed 
Kite with five eggs ; but I notice wlien I require 
them to authenticate the sets taken for me, those 
large sets fail to appear. I have been making in 
quiries in other portions of the State about this 
species, and in a letter lately received from Mr. 
E. T. Humble, Secretary of the Texas State Geo- 
logical and Scientific Society, he says : “ The 
Swallow-tailed Kite arrives here early in the 
spring, leaving late in the fall. No nest has been 
observed with more than two eggs." Tlie italics are 
mine. 
The Swallow-tailed Kite is an abundant sum- 
mer resident in Mr. Humble’s locality, Houston, 
Texas, and everywhere else along the timbered 
portions of the coast country, consequently he 
can be accepted as an authority. 
I have made arrangements with collectors in 
three counties to collect the eggs of this Kite, and 
we will see what another year will bring forth. 
[The above paper is of far more than ordinary 
interest and value. It gives the experiences of a 
practical collector who has given much time and 
thought to the subject, and who speaks from his 
own experience. 
The results obtained from the observation of 
such men are always of the greatest importance, 
and Mr. Singley deserves the thanks of all inter- 
ested for his efforts to settle the facts connected 
with the nidification of this beautiful bird 
Audubon seems to have been the first who as- 
serted that this Kite laid from four to six eggs, 
and he has been followed by nearly all writers 
down to the present day. Even so careful a 
naturalist as Mr. N. S. Goss, seems to have gone 
astray on this subject. In The Auk for January, 
1885, (Vol. H., p. 19,) he related his experience in 
finding the nests of this species, and states that 
he examined four of them. “ Three of these had 
only one egg in each ; in the other there were two 
eggs nearly ready to hatch, and the shell of one 
at the foot of the tree ; but I have it on good au- 
thority,” he continues, “that in the near vicinily 
a nest with four, and another with six, eggs have 
been found.” It is unfortunate that Mr. Goss did 
not give his autliority for this statement, as his 
theory (given further on in the same article,) that 
crows had eaten the other eggs in the nests that 
he examined, must be regarded as a very fanciful 
one. 
In the new edition of his Birds of Kansas (1886,) 
Mr. Goss repeats hi? statement that this species 
lays from “four to six” eggs. It would be inter- 
esting to know if Mr. Goss has ever seen a well 
authenticated set of four eggs of this Kite, to say 
nothing of a larger number, or if lie knows of any 
one who has them in his possession. 
All the sets that the present writer knows of 
are uniiormly two in number.— rJj^P.N.l 
— : o. XI. Oct. 1836 . 
