l80 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



rapidly and finally whirled to disappear over the crest of the ridge. 

 Watson Perrygo and I, both of us familiar with the two species 

 concerned, watched them closely and were satisfied that they were 

 the Mississippi kite. On March 20, 1950, at Charco del Toro on the 

 Rio Maje, between 300 and 400 kites that I believed to be the north- 

 ern bird rushed past, swerving about with roaring wings, ahead of 

 a heavy rain. And on April 7, 1959, at Las Cumbres, outside of Pan- 

 ama City, I watched a flock of 75 shifting in formation as they beat 

 against the strong tradewind, that also seemed to be this species. 



Fully adult birds of the Mississippi kite are similar to the other 

 species in size, and in general gray and black color but lack the 

 broken white bar in the tail. The bright brown of the inner webs 

 of the primaries, prominent on all of these feathers in the plumbeous 

 kite, is restricted to a few small, hidden spots on a few of the inner- 

 most feathers. The toes are dusky instead of yellow like the tarsus. 



ROSTRHAMUS SOCIABILIS SOCIABILIS (Vieillot): Everglade Kite; 

 Gavildn Caracolero 



FiGXJKE 37 



Herpetotheres sociabilis Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat, nouv. ed., vol. 18, Dec. 

 1817, p. 318. (Corrientes and Rio de la Plata.) 



Of medium size, black, with or without buflf streaks on lower 

 surface; rump and base of tail white; bill very slender, much curved. 



Description. — Length 390 to 430 mm. Adult male, black to black- 

 ish slate; feathers of forehead, throat, and lower eyelid white basally; 

 tail coverts, both above and below, white; tail with concealed base 

 white, bordered distally by an indistinct band of mouse brown, and 

 with end brown tipped with dull white; under surface of primaries 

 and secondaries, with indefinite bars of grayish white. 



Adult female, somewhat browner black ; throat and breast streaked 

 lightly with buflf; elsewhere with feathers in part edged lightly with 

 dull cinnamon. 



Immature, fuscous above, with indistinct edgings of cinnamon- 

 buff ; crown with indistinct streaks of dull cinnamon ; forehead and 

 superciliary bufify white, streaked with fuscous, the superciliary 

 much broader above ear region ; crown and nape feathers white bas- 

 ally ; under surface bufify white, with shaft lines fuscous on throat 

 and foreneck; lower breast and sides heavily streaked with fus- 

 cous ; a band of nearly solid fuscous across upper breast ; under wing 

 coverts tipped broadly with rufous. 



