MISSISSIPPI KITE. 71 



of Hawk which I examined by dissection, were the only substances 

 found in their stomachs. For several miles, as I passed near Bayou 

 Manchak, the trees were swarming with a kind of Cicada, or locust, 

 that made a deafening noise ; and here I observed numbers of the Hawk 

 now before us, sweeping about among the trees like swallows, evidently 

 in pursuit of these locusts ; so that insects, it would appear, are the 

 principal food of this species. Yet when we contemplate the beak and 

 talons of this bird, both so sharp and powerful, it is difficult to believe 

 that they.were- not intended by nature for some more formidable prey 

 than beetles, locusts, or grasshoppers ; and I doubt not but qiice, lizards, 

 snakes and small birds, furnish him with an occasional repast. 



This Hawk, though wounded and precipitated from a vast height, 

 exhibited, in his distress, symptoms of great strength, and an almost 

 unconquerable spirit. I no sooner approached to pick him up, than he 

 instantly gave battle, striking rapidly with his claws, wheeling round 

 and round as he lay partly on his rump ; and defending himself with 

 great vigilance and dexterity; while his dark red eye sparkled with 

 rage. Notwithstanding all my caution in seizing him, to carry him 

 home, he struck his hind claw into my hand with such force as to pene- 

 trate into the bone. Anxious to preserve his life, I endeavored gently 

 to disengage it ; but this made him only contract it the more powerfully, 

 causing such pain that I had no other alternative but that of cutting 

 the sinew of his heel with my penknife. The whole time he lived with 

 me, he seemed to watch every movement I made ; erecting the feathers 

 of his hind-head, and eyeing me with savage fierceness ; considering me, 

 no doubt, as the greatest savage of the two. What effect education 

 might have had on this species, under the tutorship of some of the old 

 European professors of Falconry, I know not ; but if extent of wing, 

 and energy of character, and ease and rapidity of flight, would have 

 been any recommendations to royal patronage, this species possesses all 

 these in a very eminent degree. 



The long pointed wings, and forked tail, point out the aflSnity of this 

 bird to that family, or subdivision of the Falco genus, distinguished by 

 the name of Kites, which sail without flapping the wings, and eat from 

 their talons as they glide along. 



The Mississippi Kite measures fourteen inches in length, and thirty- 

 six inches, or three feet, in extent. The head, neck, and exterior webs 

 of the secondaries, are of a hoary white ; the lower parts a whitish ash ; 

 bill, cere, lores, and narrow line round the eye, black ; back, rump, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts, dark blackish ash ; wings very long and 

 pointed, the third quill the longest ; the primaries are black, marked 

 down each side of the shaft with reddish sorrel ; primary coverts also 

 slightly touched with the same ; all the upper plumage at the roots is 

 white ; the scapulars are also spotted with white ; but this cannot be 



