MISSISSIPPI KITE 67 



Corners of mouth light orange. Feet pale, clear yellow-orange, with 

 gray claws. Eyes dull gray-brown, with bluish pupils. Eyelids 

 dull gray." The Juvenal plumage appears first on the scapulars, 

 then on the wings and tail, and then on the back and the sides of the 

 breast ; the last of the down is seen on the head and belly. 



In fresh Juvenal plumage the head is white, streaked with black; 

 the back and wing coverts are sooty black, almost clear black, with 

 narrow edgings of "russet" or buffy white ; the scapulars are broadly 

 banded with white ; the greater wing coverts, all the rectrices, and all 

 the remiges are jet black, tipped with white, most broadly on the 

 tertials and scapulars and most narrowly on the tail ; the under wing 

 coverts are "pale ochraceous-buff" spotted with rusty brown; the 

 tail feathers are deeply notched or barred with white on the inner 

 webs; the under parts are from "cinnamon-buff" to buffy white, 

 heavily spotted with browns, the breast feathers being centrally 

 "hazel" surrounded by blackish brown and broadly edged with 

 "cinnamon-buff." 



This plumage, with considerable fading of the browns and buffs, 

 is worn only through the summer and fall. During the first winter 

 and spring progress is made toward maturity by a gradual molt of 

 the contour plumage ; but considerable white still shows on the under 

 parts owing to basally white breast feathers, the white increasing on 

 the belly and under tail coverts. One-year-old birds in May, July, 

 and August still retain the juvenal wings and tail and show the last 

 of the first winter plumage on the under parts. Apparently the 

 adult plumage is assumed at this first posftiuptial molt, which is com- 

 plete and much prolonged ; I believe that the wings and tail are not 

 molted until after the birds go south. Mr. Stevens has seen birds 

 breeding in this immature plumage. Adults probably have a similar, 

 prolonged, annual molt. 



Food. — Mr. Stevens says in his notes that these kites feed on 

 the wing, snatching locusts from plants and seizing cicadas in flight, 

 A flock of from 3 to 20 will sail about a person, a horseman, or a 

 team, traveling through grassy flats and bushy places, and seize the 

 cicadas as they are scared up. The insect is grasped in the claws 

 and eaten in the air. Usually only the abdomen of the cicada is 

 eaten and the remainder is dropped; the wings and legs of locusts 

 are often picked off and the remainder swallowed. He has found 

 the remains of toads, mice, and young rabbits in the nests with 

 young. 



Audubon (1840) graphically describes its feeding as follows: 



He glances towards the earth with his fiery eye; sweeps along, now with 

 the gentle breeze, now against it; seizes here and there the high-flying giddy 

 bug, and allays his hunger without fatigue to wing or talon. Suddenly he 

 spies some creeping thing, that changes, like the cameleon from vivid green 



