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THE MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



Falco plumbs us, Gmel. 



PLATE CXVII. Male and Female. 



Whex, after many a severe conflict, the southern breezes, in alHance 

 with the sun, have, as if through a generous effort, driven back for a sea- 

 son to their desolate abode the chill blasts of the north ; when warmth 

 and plenty are insured for a while to our happy lands ; when clouds of 

 anxious Swallows, returning from the far south, are guiding millions of 

 Warblers to their summer residence ; when numberless insects, cramped in 

 their hanging shells, are impatiently waiting for the full expansion of 

 their wings ; when the vernal flowers, so welcome to all, swell out their 

 bursting leaflets, and the rich-leaved Magnolia opens its pure blossoms to 

 the Humming Bird ; — then look up, and you will see the Mississippi 

 Kite, as he comes sailing over the scene. He glances towards the earth 

 with his fiery eye ; sweeps along, now with the gentle breeze, now against 

 it ;: seizes here and there the high-flying giddy bug, and allays his hunger 

 without fatigue to wing or talon. Suddenly he spies some creeping 

 thing, that changes, like the chameleon, from vivid green to dull-brown, 

 to escape his notice. It is the red-throated panting lizard that has made 

 its way to the highest branch of a tree in quest of food. Casting upwards 

 a sidelong look of fear, it remains motionless, so well does it know the 

 prowess of the bird of prey : but its caution is vain ; it has been per- 

 ceived, its fate is sealed, and the next moment it is swept away. 



The Mississippi Kite thus extends its migrations as high as the city 

 of Memphis, on the noble stream whose name it bears, and along our 

 eastern shores to the Carolinas, where it now and then breeds, feeding 

 the while on lizards, small snakes, and beetles, and sometimes, as if for 

 want of better employ, teaching the Carrion Crows and Buzzards to fly. 

 At other times, congregating to the number of twenty or more, these 

 birds are seen sweeping around some tree, catching the large locusts 

 which abound in those countries at an early part of the season, and re- 

 minding one of the Chimney Swallows, which are so often seen perform- 

 in o- similar evolutions, when endeavouring to snap off the little dried 

 twigs of which their nests are composed. 



