MISSISSIPPI KITE. Ictinia Mississippensis. 



AMEEICA also furnishes us with the genus Ictinia, a member of which is very familiar 

 to ornithologists under the name of MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



This fine bird is a native of various parts of America, where it may be seen at a vast 

 elevation in the air, sailing about in strange companionship with the turkey buzzard, and 

 equalling those birds in the power, grace, and readiness of its flight. Why two such 

 dissimilar birds should thus inhabit the same region of air, and delight in each other's 

 society, is a very perplexing question, and requires a much clearer knowledge of the species 

 and its habits before it can be satisfactorily settled. The Mississippi Kite cares not for 

 carrion, and is not absolutely known to make prey of anything bigger than a locust. Yet, 

 as Wilson well observes, the powerful hooked beak and sharp claws seem as if they were 

 intended' by nature for the capture of prey much more formidable than grasshoppers, 

 locusts, and butterflies. In its flight, the Mississippi Kite needs not to flap its wings, but 

 sails on its airy course with the same easy grace and apparent absence of exertion that 

 is so characteristic of the flight of the vultures. 



The very great proportionate length of its wings may account for this habit ; the entire 

 length of the body and tail being only fourteen inches, while the expanse of wing equals 

 three feet. Being possessed of such power of flight, it emulates the swallow-tailed Falcon 

 in many of its evolutions, and in a similar manner is fond of sweeping rapidly past a branch, 

 and snatching from the leaves a choice locust or beetle without checking its progress. Like 

 that bird it also feeds while on the wing, holding its prey in its claws and transferring it 

 to its mouth without needing to settle. In character it seems to be a most fierce and 

 courageous bird, as may be gathered from a short narrative given by Wilson of one of 

 these birds which he had shot. 



" This Hawk, though wounded and precipitated from a vast height, exhibited in his 

 distress symptoms of great strength, and an almost unconquerable spirit. I no sooner 

 approached to pick him up, than he instantly gave battle, striking with his claws, wheeling 

 round and round as he lay partly on his rump, and defending himself with great vigilance 

 and dexterity, while his dark-red eye sparkled with rage. Notwithstanding all my caution 

 in seizing him to carry him home, he stuck his hind claw into my hand witli such force 

 as to penetrate into the bone. Anxious to preserve his life, I endeavoured gently to dis- 

 engage it ; but this made him only contract it the more powerfully, causing such pain 

 that I had no alternative but that of cutting the sinew of his heel with my penknife. 

 2 F 



