328. Elanus leucurus. 16 in.

Head, underparts and tail, white; shoulders black; upperparts gray. Young, with the back tinged with rusty. Their food consists largely of snakes, but they also eat a great many small rodents and insects.

Nest. - Made of sticks, weeds and leaves, and placed in trees at quite an elevation from the ground; eggs creamy white, profusely blotched with brown.

Range. - Texas to central California, and less often east of the Miss. River, north to South Carolina.