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 230 TH CONI)OR Vol. XVII anythiNe. of the topography of the country thereabouts asserted that all the valleys were narrow and rocky, with no marshy places nor lagunas of any extent anywhere in those ranges of mountains except just where we were col- lecting-that is, between Isabella and Onyx, on the South Fork of the Kern. San Francisco, August 16, 1915. NESTING OF THE WHITE-TAILED KITE AT SESPE, VENTURA COUNTY, CALIFOPNIA By LAWRENCE PEYTON WITH TWO PHOTOS T WAS in the spring of 1913 that a pair of the beautiful but fast vanishing White-tailed Kites (Elanus leucurus) was first seen in this vicinity. My brother Sidney saw the birds carrying sticks to a nest in a eucalyptus tree Fig. 77. NESTIN(} SITE OF WLtTE-TAr.le.D KITE NEAR SESPE, VENTURA COUNTY, CALIFOENIA. ARROW POINTS TOWARDS NEST. in the willow swamp about three-quarters of a mile east of home. This nest was not completed, however, probably owing to the persecutions of the Crows. In 1914 a pair of Kites, probably the same ones, were again located in the willow thickets about two miles farther est, but all efforts to find the nest failed, and it was not until this year that our search was rewarded. On April 22, my brother Sidney, while after bluejay's eggs saw a Kite fly from a nest in the top of a small oak tree about one-half mile north of home. On climbing to the nest, which was about 18 feet above the ground, he found it contained three young about a week old and an addled egg, which latter he took.