120 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



plain gray, darker on back, wings, etc., the primaries (sometimes 

 entire wing) and tail black; primaries sometimes with greater part of 

 inner webs chestnut, and rectrices sometimes with inner webs crossed 

 by two or three bands of wliite. 



Range. — Warmer parts of continental America, from Lower Austral 

 Zone of Eastern United States to Paraguay. (Two species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF ICTINIA 



a. Undcrparts uniform gray Adults 



b. Wings with inner webs of remiges with indistinct spots of rufous and outer 

 webs with very indistinct stripe of the same; tail without white markings, 

 more than half as long as wing, its tip distinctly cmarginate (southeastern 



and east-central United States) I. misisippiensis (p. 120) 



66. Wings with inner webs of primaries almost wholly rufous, the outer webs 

 with only a trace of this color; tail with about three narrow bands of 

 white across inner webs, less than half as long as wing, its tip truncate 



(Mexico to Argentina) 1, plumbea (p. 125) 



aa. Underparts whitish, heavily streaked Young 



b. Underparts streaked with fuscous blackish; little white on superciliaries. 



I. plumbea (p. 125) 

 66. Underparts streaked with rufescent brownish; much white on superciharies. 



I. misisippiensis (p. 120) 



ICTINIA MISISIPPIENSIS (Wilson) 



Mississippi Kite 



Adult male. — Forehead, crown, occiput, cheeks, auriculars, second- 

 aries, and entire lower parts varying from pallid neutral gray to pale 

 neutral gray, lightest on the head and secondaries, where it is less 

 ashy; a frontal area on the forehead, the chin, and the tips of the 

 secondaries hoary whitish; darkest on sides, lower abdomen, thighs, 

 and under tail coverts, where it sometimes approaches neutral gray; 

 lores and circumocular region black; scapulars, interscapulars, back, 

 and rump deep neutral gray to slate color, darkening on upper tail 

 coverts to blackish slate and black with a dull blackish slate wash; 

 the scapulars with concealed white spots; tail uniformly blackish with 

 a blackish slate wash; lesser upper wing coverts slate color to blackish 

 slate, rest of upper wing coverts deep neutral gray to slate color; 

 primaries blackish, all but the outermost two with an indistinct, 

 semiconcealed, narrow longitudinal stripe of rufescent chestnut 

 brown on the outer web and a series of large spots of this color on the 

 inner web; feathers of underparts white basally, the white sometimes 

 showing through where feathers have been lost or ruflled; shafts of 

 primaries and rectrices black both above and below (usually); the 

 outermost (first) primary sharply, the next concavely, emarginated 

 on the inner web ; tail slightly emarginated, lateral (longest) rectrices 

 exceeding middle (shortest) ones by about 12 mm.; bill, cere, eyelids, 

 and interior of mouth, deep black; iris deep burnt carmine or lake 



