OBSERVATIONS ON ELANOIDES EORFICATUS 
AND ICTINIA SUBC^RULEA IN KANSAS. 
BY N. S. GOSS. 
The Swallow-tailed Kite is an irregular summer resident along 
the timbered streams, being abundant some seasons and rare 
others. It arrives earl}’ in May, and devotes the first few days to 
courtship and mating, the next to selecting nesting places, which 
I have so far found to be in the small branches near the tops of 
the tallest trees. By the last of the month the nests are com- 
pleted, and as the trees by that time are in full leaf they are 
largely hidden from view. They are made of sticks loosely in- 
terwoven and lined sparingly with the soft, ribbon-like strippings 
from the inner bark of old, decaying or dead cottonwood trees. 
The eggs are oval ; the ground-color is cream white, irregularly 
spotted and blotched with dark reddish brown, running largely 
together towards the small end- The measurements of three are 
1.84 X 1.48, 1.87 X 1.50, 1.90 X 1.50. 
As the nests are hard to reach, 1 have been able to examine 
but four. Three of these had only one egg in each ; in the other 
there were two eggs, nearly read}’ to hatch, and the shell of one 
at the foot of the tree ; but I have it on good authority that in the 
near vicinity a nest with four, and another with six, eggs have 
been found. 'I'he males assist in building the nest, alternate in 
sitting and in feeding the young, and, in fact, appear as attentive 
as the females.* 
April 27, 1876 (the earliest arrival noticed), a pair put in an 
appearance at Neosho Falls, and as they continued to circle in 
their graceful flights over the same grounds — the edge of the 
prairie and timber on the Neosho River — I became satisfied that 
their nesting places would be selected within the circle, and I 
devoted my leisure moments to watching their movements. On 
the 5th of May they were joined by another pair, and later in the 
day, to my great surprise and joy, two pairs of Mississippi Kites 
* I saw a pair of tliese birds once in the act of copulation. They were sitting on a 
small, horizontal limb close together and facing each other, when, quick as a flash, the 
female turned or backed under the limb, the male meeting her from the top. 
