Species XII. FALCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS* 



MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



[Plate XXV. Fig. 1, Male.] 



This new species I first observed in the Mississippi territory, a few 

 miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William Dunbar, Esquire, 

 where the bird represented in the plate was obtained after being slightly 

 wounded ; and the drawing made with great care from the living speci- 

 men. To the hospitality of the gentleman above mentioned, and his 

 amiable family, I am indebted for the opportunity afforded me of pro- 

 curing this, and one or two more new species. This excellent man, 

 (whose life has been devoted to science) though at that time confined 

 to bed by a severe and dangerous indisposition, and personally unac- 

 quainted with me, no sooner heard of my arrival at the town of Natchez, 

 than he sent a servant and horses, with an invitation and request to 

 come and make his house my home and head-quarters, while engaged in 

 exploring that part of the country. The few happy days I spent there 

 I shall never forget. 



In my perambulations, I frequently remarked this Hawk sailing about 

 in easy circles, and at a considerable height in the air, generally in 

 company with the Turkey-Buzzards, whose manner of flight it so exactly 

 imitates, as to seem the same species, only in miniature, or seen at a 

 more immense height. Why these two birds, whose food and manners, 

 in other respects, are so different, should so frequently associate together 

 in air, I am at a loss to comprehend. We cannot for a moment suppose 

 them mutually deceived by the similarity of each other's flight ; the 

 keenness of their vision forbids all suspicion of this kind. They may 

 perhaps be engaged, at such times, in mere amusement, as they are 

 observed to soar to great heights previous to a storm ; or, what is more 

 probable, may both be in pursuit of their respective food. One that he 

 may reconnoitre a vast extent of surface below, and trace the tainted 

 atmosphere to his favorite carrion ; the other in search of those large 

 beetles, or coleopterous insects, that are known often to wing the higher 

 regions of the air ; and which, in the three individuals of this species 



* This species, although supposed to be new by Wilson, had been figured and 

 described by Vieillot, in his " Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de I'Am^rique 

 Septentrionale," under the name of Milvus cenchris. Vieillot refers it to the 

 F. plumbeus of Gmelin, and the Spotted-tailed Hobby of Latham. Gen. Syn i., p. 

 106. 



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