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SPECIES 12. FALCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS.* 



MISSISSIPPI KITE. 

 [Plate XXV. -Fig. I, Male.] 

 PEALE'S Museum, No. 403. 



THIS new species I first observed in the Mississippi territory, 

 a few miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William Dun- 

 bar, esquire, where the bird represented in the plate was obtain- 

 ed, after being slightly wounded; and the drawing made with 

 great care from the living specimen. To the hospitality of the 

 gentleman above mentioned, and his amiable family, I am in- 

 debted for the opportunity afforded me of procuring 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 

 unacquainted with me, no sooner heard of my arrival at the 

 town of Natchez, than he sent a servant and horses, with an in- 

 vitation 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 for- 

 get 



In my perambulations, I frequently remarked this Hawk sail- 

 ing about in easy circles, and at a considerable height in the air, 

 generally in company with the Turkey-Buzzards, whose man- 

 ner 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 



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

 and described by Vieillot, in his " Histoire Naturelle dea Oiseaux do PAme'ri- 

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

 the F. plumbeus of Gmelin, and the SptUd-tailed Hobby of Latham. Gen. Syn. I, 

 p. 106. 



