374 SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 



opterous insects. Some of the snakes have been swallowed whole, 

 although bruised, the rest broken into large pieces several inches 

 long. The aperture of the pylorus is very small, its diameter being 

 only 1^ twelfth; it has three longitudinal valves, as is common in 

 hawks. The duodenum curves in the usual manner, returning upon 

 itself at the distance of 3 inches. The biliary ducts enter at 6^ inches. 

 The intestine is short, rather wide, 22 inches long, from 5 twelfths to 



3 twelfths in diameter. There are no cceca. The rectum is 3^ inches 

 long, including the cloaca, which is globular, and 1 inch in diameter. 



The trachea is 4 inches long, flattened, from 4 twelfths to 2f twelfths 

 in breadth, a little enlarged and much flattened at the lower part ; its 

 rings feeble, 82 in number. The contractor muscles are strong, the 

 sterno-tracheal moderate. A single pan- of inferior laryngeal, going 

 to the last ring. The bronchi are moderate, one of 12, the other of 

 15 half rings. 



In another male shot in the same country, on the same day, the 

 stomach contains 1 slender green snake 19 inches long, 6 lizards, and 



4 beautiful very large coleopterous insects, with two eggs of reptiles 

 7^ twelfths long. The intestine is 22 inches long, there are no vestiges 

 ofcoeca. 



MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



Falco plumbeus, Gmel. 



L ATE CXVII. Vol. II. p. 108. 



Respecting this species I have only to add that I found it in abun- 

 dance, and breeding, in the Texas. An adult individual procured on 

 Bufialo Bayou, in that country, in May 1837, presents the following 

 internal characters : — 



The mouth is wide ; its roof flat, with two longitudinal papillate 

 ridges, and an anterior median ridge ; the tongue very short and broad 

 measuring only i inch in the longitudinal direction, and 3^ twelfths 

 across, emarginate and papillate at the base, concave above, the tip 

 rounded and slightly emarginate. The oesophagus is 4 inches long, 

 dilated into a crop 1 inch in width, and on entering the thorax con- 



