ORDER ACCIPITRES. 243 



These birds will plunge down into rivers to carry off the fish, 

 and also hunt all kinds of small game. They fight with crows 

 for pieces of carrion, and force them to let thern go. They 

 frequent marshy grounds in preference, and build the nest on 

 some bush in the midst of reeds. They also build in rocks 

 and trees like the common kite. The eggs, four in number, 

 have red spots. 



It appears not improbable that this kite is but a variety of the 

 common, and also that the Etolian kite of Savigny, falco 

 Egyptius, Gra., is the same. 



The Blac of M. Le Vaillant is the couhieh of the Arabs, 

 and is found in Barbary, Egypt, and Africa generally. It is 

 usually on the top of trees or the most elevated bushes : it 

 continually sends forth piercing cries, both when perched and 

 flying. It does not attack small birds, and pursues the shrikes 

 and crows only for the purpose of driving them away from its 

 habitat. Though daring and intrepid, its usual food is grass- 

 hoppers, and some other insects, from which it is thought to 

 derive a certain odour of musk with which its body and excre- 

 ments are impregnated. As it is exceedingly savage, one 

 cannot easily approach it. It builds a tolerably spacious nest 

 in the forks of trees, which is furnished within with feathers 

 and moss, where the female lays four or five white eggs. 



Our figure of the Mississipi Kite was drawn by Major 

 Hamilton Smith at Philadelphia. It is the same specimen as 

 is figured by Wilson, the Carolina Kite of the text. 



A species called Yetapa is placed among the kites, and de- 

 scribed by d'Azara. He calls it faucon a queue en ciseaux, 

 for in hovering it opens and closes its tail like a pair of scissars. 

 It is about twenty-one inches long. The upper part all white, 

 with the exception of the anterior portion of the back, which 

 is black. Wings partly black and partly white ; cere and 

 tarsi blue. 



This bird arrives in Paraguay in spring in flocks of from ten 

 to twenty individuals. Its flight is usually circular ; and when 



