WHITE-TAILED KITE. Elanus leucurus (Vieillot)

Field characters.—Hawk-like; size somewhat larger than that of Pigeon; wings long and narrow. Whole upper surface of body pale gray; whole under surface of body and forehead pure white; a large patch of black at 'bend' of wing, showing conspicuously in flight. Flies in open, with much poising on beating wings.

Occurrence.—Not seen by us. Reported on several occasions near Bean Creek, east of Coulterville, and recorded once from Yosemite Valley, as detailed below. Lives about open marshlands or meadows, perching in adjacent willows or oaks. Solitary or in pairs.

The White-tailed Kite is, or was in the days of its abundance, a regular resident of the lowland districts of California. It sometimes appears in foothill localities and has been seen by Mr. Donald D. McLean on a number of occasions over the meadows of Bean Creek, east of Coulterville. There is a single record of the occurrence of the species in Yosemite Valley. Mr. Otto Widmann (1904, p. 68) records that "about 9 a.m. on May 24 [1903] a great commotion was heard in a clump of trees near the Yosemite Falls, and presently a White-tailed Kite, chased by two vireos, flew out and across an opening into a tall yellow pine." None of the members of our own party chanced to see this species anywhere in the Yosemite section.