BIRDS OF PREY. 



35 



some resemblance both to the Buzzard and the Owl, and is easily re-cognised either as it flies with the 

 tips of its wings raised much above its body, or when seen quietly perched and glowing with dazzling 

 brilliancy in the rays of a tropical sun. If in pursuit of prey, it glides along at a considerable height 

 above the ground, and, when it descries a victim, hovers for a few moments before swooping heavily 

 down with wings close to its sides ; should it be a mouse, or a grasshopper that is thus hastily seized, 

 the former is carried off to a tree to be devoured, the latter immediately swallowed. Young birds are 

 often eaten, but mice, we believe, constitute its principal subsistence. So entirely is this species free 

 from any dread of man, that in Egypt it flies about in the fields close to the native labourers, and will 

 even build its nest upon such orange-trees as are constantly visited by the gardener; it soon, how- 

 ever, becomes cautious if pursued, and learns to keep at a very respectful distance from the European 

 gun. In its relations to such of its feathered companions as are small or harmless, the True Gliding 

 Kite is quite inoffensive, but it pursues the larger birds of prey with loud cries whenever they appear. 

 The voice of this species resembles that of the Tree Falcon ; the notes are, however, more prolonged, 

 almost like a whistle, and can be heard at a great distance. In Egypt the period of incubation takes 

 place in the months that correspond with our spring, and in Soudan at the commencement of the 

 rainy season : we have twice found young birds as early as March. The nests were flat in shape, and 

 placed upon low, thickly-foliaged trees, at not more than twenty feet above the ground ; diey were 

 built of small twigs, and lined with fine fibres and blades of grass, over which was laid a snug bed of 

 wool and mouse's hair. The eggs vary in colour, some being greyish white, thickly but irregularly 

 spotted, and streaked with reddish brown, insomuch that the whitish colour of the shell is scarcely 

 visible. Jerdon mentions these eggs as being pure white ; their length is one and a half inches, and 

 their diameter, in the thickest part, about fourteen lines. If taken young from the nest, the Gliding 

 Kite is capable of being made very tame, and soon accustoms itself to life in a cage. 



The HOVERING KITES {letinid) are American birds, very nearly allied to those we have just 

 described. This group consists of but two species. In these birds the wings — in which the third 

 quill is longer than the rest — ^are long and pointed ; the tail of medium length, and slightly sloping ; 

 the feet powerful, but of no great size ; the toes are comparatively short, and armed with round and 

 very decidedly curved talons ; the beak is short, nearly as broad as it is high, and furnished at its 

 base with rudimentary toothdike appendages ; the plumage is thick and soft, and the individual 

 quills of moderate size. 



THE MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



The Mississippi Kite (Ictinia Mississippensis) is about fourteen inches long and thirty-six broad. 

 The head, nape, and entire upper portions of the body are blueish white ; the back, wings, and tail, 

 black, enlivened by a greenish gloss ; the secondary quills are tipped with greyish white, the outer 

 web of the primaries being of a brilliant red ; the eye is deep red ; the beak, and a place round the eye, 

 black ; the foot is bright red.. " When spring arrives," says Audubon, " the Mississippi Kite 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. At times, congregating to the number of twenty or more, these birds are seen 

 sweeping round some tree, catching the large locusts which abound in those countries at an early 

 part of the season. The Mississippi Kite arrives in Lower Louisiana about the middle of April, in 

 parties of five or six, and confines itself to the borders of deep woods, or to those near plantations, 

 not far from the shores of the rivers, lakes, or bayous. It never moves into the interior of the 

 country ; plantations lately cleared, and yet covered with tall, dying, girted trees, placed near a creek 

 or bayou, seem to please it best. 



