d from a limb ten feet
below the nest. Even at the Park where firearms are prohibited, kites
are sometimes shot by ignorant or malicious persons. In general,
Kansas ranchers recognize the harmless and beneficial habits of kites,
appreciate their esthetic appeal and protect them, but many persons
use them as convenient targets, with utter disregard for the Federal
laws protecting them. Because of the strong popular prejudice against
raptorial birds in general, laws protecting them are usually not
enforced. Law enforcement officers do not take action even when
clear-cut violations come to their attention. Arrest and prosecution
for the killing of any kind of raptor is almost out of the question in
Kansas.

Ratio of Immatures to Adults

In the juvenal plumage flight feathers of the kites are brown, barred
with white, much different in appearance from the dark, slaty plumage
of adults. Bent (_op. cit._:67) stated that these barred flight
feathers are retained through the second summer, and he quoted Mr. G.
W. Stevens as having found kites breeding in this immature plumage. On
June 2, 1961, I attempted to determine the ratio of these yearling
kites to others in the population at the Park. Most of the kites seen
were in flight too far away to discern definitely whether or not they
were juveniles, and records were limited to those seen at relatively
close range. In a total of 108 records only 11 pertained to these
yearlings and the remaining 97 were identified as of adults. Beyond
doubt in the course of my counts some individuals were recorded
repeatedly, therefore the counts are not entirely acceptable. However,
on each occasion that kites were seen in numbers in early summer, the
adults greatly outnumbered the juveniles. The approximate nine to one
ratio of adults to yearlings seems much too high. Even if the
difference is much less than indicated, the high ratio of adults to
yearlings would seem to imply that the adults have a long life
expectancy. A rather improbable alternative is that some of the
yearlings remain in winter quarters or wander elsewhere rather than
accompanying the adults on the return migration to their breeding
grounds. Still another alternative is that the breeding season of 1960
was relatively unsuccessful, but this idea is negated by my own
observations at the Park in late 1960, as recently fledged young were
numerous then.

At the time of my visit to the Park August 21 to 2