AVES— FALCON. ..KITE. 461 



THE ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON,' 



Notwithstanding its formidable size and appearance, spends the chief part 

 of the winter among our low swamps and meadows, watching for mice, 

 frogs, lame ducks, and other inglorious game. Twenty or thirty individuals 

 of this family have regularly taken up their winter quarters for several years 

 past in the meadows below Philadelphia, between the Delaware and 

 Schuylkill rivers, where they spend their time watching the banks like cats ; 

 or sailing low and slowly over the surfaces of the ditches. Though rendered 

 shy by any attempt made to shoot them, they seldom fly far, usually from 

 one tree to another at no great distance, making a loud squealing as they 

 rise, something resembling the neighing of a young colt, though in a more 

 shrill and savage tone. 



This bird is common during winter in the lower parts of Maryland, and 

 numerous in the extensive meadows below Newark, New Jersey; and are 

 frequent along the Connecticut river. Their flight is slow and heavy. 

 They take their station at daybreak near a ditch, bank, or haystack, for 

 hours together, watching with patient vigilance for the first unlucky frog, 

 mouse, or lizard, to make its uppearance. The instant one of these is de- 

 scried, the hawk, sliding into ihe air, sweeps over the spot, and in an instant 

 has his prey grappled and sprawling in the air. 



THE MISSISSIPPI KITE 2 



I first observed, says Wilson, a few miles below Natchez, where I found 

 them in company with the turkey buzzard, whose flight it so exactly 

 imitates as to seem the same species, in miniature. It sails about in easy 

 circles, and at an immense height in the air. I observed numbers of this 

 hawk sweeping about among the trees like swallows, in pursuit of the 

 locusts that were in swarms on the trees, so that insects, it would appear, 

 are the principal food of this species ; but I do not doubt that mice, lizards, 

 snakes, and small birds, furnish him with an occasional repast. This hawk 

 is fourteen inches in length, and three feet in extent of wing. It is of an 

 ash color, with a white neck and head. 



1 F. Uiffopii.s, Lin. j F. plumbeus, Gmel. 



39* 



