THE MISSISSIPPI KITE 57 



backs and white-barred tails, and are heavily streaked with dusky 

 below. An easy flying bird, migrating in flocks, sometimes at a great 

 height. 



Description. Adults : On both neck and head grayish above ; 

 back slate colored ; tips of wings and entire tail black. Below gray- 

 ish. 



Immature: Streaked on the head with black and white; back 

 dusky with rufous edged feathers; tail with three or four incom- 

 plete white bars. Below heavily streaked with blackish brown on 

 a buffy background. 



Measurements. Length 13 to 15.50 inches, wing 10.60 to 12.30 

 inches, tail 6 to 7 inches. 



Range. Southern Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, southern Indiana and 

 South Carolina, south to Texas and Florida; wintering in Florida, 

 southern Texas, and beyond. Accidental in Colorado, South Da- 

 kota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. 



This Kite is by no means the equal in elegance and beauty of the 

 Swallow-tailed Kite, but is said to share with it remarkable powers 

 of flight. 



R. M. Anderson says : "I was for a long time constrained to place 

 it in the hypothetical list for want of a definite authentic record of 

 its capture in Iowa." 



Two specimens of the Mississippi Kite were secured in the fall 

 of 1887 near Burlington. They were mounted by Mr. Chas. Buett- 

 ner, of that city, and were examined by the writer in the museum 

 of the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant. This is its 

 first recorded occurrence in the state. 



An immature female Mississippi Kite! collected near Omaha, 

 Nebraska, and purchased for the Coe College Museum, is the first 

 of this species recorded for Nebraska. (The Wilson Bulletin, 

 September, 1915.) 



This Kite is said to be fully as gregarious as any of the other 

 Kites and oftentimes may be seen in flocks of twenty or more circ- 

 ling over a favorite hunting ground. It is also said to be not at all 

 shy, and Col. N. S. Goss, in his History of the Birds of Kansas, 

 relates that at one time he shot two of these birds from the same 

 tree, the second one remaining in the tree undisturbed by the dis- 

 charge of the gun which killed its mate. 



There is no record of its nesting in Iowa. The eggs are from one 



