MISSISSIPPI KITE. Ill 



magnolias and white oaks, which adorn our Southern States, The nest re- 

 sembles that of the dilapidated tenement of the Common American Crow, 

 and is formed of sticks shghtly put together, along with branches of Spa- 

 nish moss (Usnea), pieces of vine bark, and dried leaves. The eggs are 

 two or three, almost globular, of a light greenish tint, blotched thickly over 

 with deep chocolate-brown and black. Only one brood is raised in the 

 season, and I think the female sits more than half the time necessary for 

 incubation. The young I also think obtain nearly the full plumage of 

 the old bird before they depart from us, as I have examined these birds 

 early in August, when the migration was already begun, without obser- 

 ving much difference in their general colour, except only in the want of 

 firmness in the tint of the young ones. 



Once, early in^the month of May, I found a nest of this bird placed on 

 a fine tall white oak near a creek, and observed that the female was sit- 

 ting with unceasing assiduity. The male I saw bring her food fre- 

 quently. Not being able to ascend the tree, I hired a Negro, who had 

 been a sailor for some years, to climb it and bring down the eggs or young. 

 This he did by first mounting another tree, the branches of which crossed 

 the lower ones of the oak. No sooner had he reached the trunk of the 

 tree on which the nest was placed, than the male was seen hovering about 

 and over it in evident displeasure, screaming and sweeping towards the 

 intruder the higher he advanced. When he attained the branch on which 

 the nest was, the female left her charge, and the pair, infuriated at his 

 daring, flew with such velocity, and passed so close to him, that I ex- 

 pected every moment to see him struck by them. The black tar, how- 

 ever, proceeded quietly, reached the nest, and took out the eggs, ap- 

 prising me that there were three. I requested him to bring them down 

 with care, and to throw ofi^ the nest, which he did. The poor birds, see- 

 ing their tenement cast down to the ground, continued sweeping around 

 us so low and so long, that I could not resist the temptation thus offered 

 of shooting them. 



The Mississippi Kite is by no means a shy bird, and one may gene- 

 rally depend on getting near it when alighted ; but to follow it while on 

 wing were useless, its flight being usually so elevated, and its sweeps over 

 a field or wood so rapid and varied, that you might spend many hours in 

 vain in attempting to get up with it. Even when alighted, it perches so 

 high, that I have sometimes shot at it, without producing any other effect 

 than that of causing it to open its wings and close them again, as if utterly 



