100 MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



more powerfully, causing such pain that I had no other alter- 

 native but that of cutting the sinew of his heel with my penknife. 

 The whole time he lived with me, he seemed to watch every 

 movement I made; erecting the feathers of his hind-head, and 

 eyeing me with savage fierceness; considering me, no doubt, 

 as the greatest savage of the two. What effect education might 

 have had on this species, under the tutorship of some of the old 

 European professors of Falconry, I know not; but if extent of 

 wing, and energy of character, and ease and rapidity of flight, 

 would have been any recommendations to royal patronage, this 

 species possesses all these in a very eminent degree. 



The long pointed wings, and forked tail, point out the affin- 

 ity of this bird to that family, or subdivision of the Falco genus, 

 distinguished by the name of Kites, which sail without flapping 

 the wings, and eat from their talons as they glide along. 



The Mississippi Kite measures fourteen inches in length, and 

 thirty-six inches, or three feet, in extent! The head, neck, and 

 exterior webs of the secondaries, are of a hoary white; the low- 

 er parts a whitish ash; bill, cere, lores, and narrow line round 

 the eye, black; back, rump, scapulars, and wing-coverts, dark 

 blackish ash; wings very long and pointed, the third quill the 

 longest; the primaries are black, marked down each side of the 

 shaft with reddish sorrel; primary coverts also slightly touched 

 with the same; all the upper plumage at the roots is white; the 

 scapulars are also spotted with white; but this cannot be per- 

 ceived unless the feathers be blown aside; tail slightly forked, 

 and, as well as the rump, jet black; legs vermilion, tinged 

 with orange and becoming blackish towards the toes; claws 

 black; iris of the eye dark red, pupil black. 



This was a male. With the female, which is expected soon 

 from that country, I shall, in a future volume, communicate such 

 further information relative to their manners and incubation, as 

 I may be able to collect. 



