Observations on the Mississippi Kite in Southwestern Kansas

indication, and from time to time while keeping nests under observation, I saw kites that were individually recognizable as the owners coursing back and forth in the vicinity. However, only a few individuals were recognizable. For several minutes before and after delivering food, such an adult was often seen soaring within 200 to 300 yards of the nest, or sometimes much closer. A somewhat different impression was received on August 23, 1961, at Natural Bridge, south of Sun City, Barber County, Kansas, where I observed two pairs of kites feeding fledglings. One fledgling was seen to be fed ten times in a 1½ hour period. The transfer of food from the adult usually required less than a minute. Then the adult would leave the tree, in a ravine, and drift away. Circling and soaring, it seemed to be wandering aimlessly, but within two or three minutes it was usually out of sight over the horizon. In what appeared to be slow, lazy, flight it usually drifted off to the west, to more upland areas of short grass