SUPPLEMENT. 



587 



towns of Massachusetts this note is interpreted, More-wet! More- 

 wet ! and the farmer considers his note to be a precursor of rain. It 

 has two broods in a season, the male taking charge of the first brood 

 when they are about half grown. The male is exceedingly devoted 

 and courageous. 



Dr. Brewer relates that he once came upon a covey of young Quail 

 feeding on blue-berries, directly in the path. They did not see him 

 until he was close upon them, when the old bird, a fine old male, 

 flew directly toward him and tumbled at his feet, as if in a dying 

 condition, giving at the same time a shrill whistle, expressive of in- 

 tense alarm. At this moment the bird could have been easily caught. 

 The young birds, at the cry. of the parent, flew in all directions, and 

 the male soon followed them, and began calling in a low cluck, like 

 the cry of a Brown Thrasher. These young were hardly a week old, 

 yet they seemed to fly well for a short distance. Professor Baird 

 proposed the familiar title Bob-white, and it is now generally ac- 

 cepted by naturalists and sportsmen as the name of the species. 



Ictinia MississrpprENSis. Mississippi Kite, Blue Kite. — The hab- 

 itat of this bird is Central Mexico and Southern United States, 

 reaching as far north as "Wisconsin and Illinois, in the Mississippi 

 valley. On the prairies of Southern Illinois it is said to be exceed- 

 ingly abundant. On the Atlantic border it is not seen above South 

 Carolina. This species has the habit of capturing and eating insects 

 while on the wing. Mr. Bidgway describes the bird as exceedingly 

 graceful in its evolutions. Wilson says of it : "In my perambula- 

 tions I frequently remarked this Hawk sailing about in easy circles, 

 and at considerable height in the air, generally in company with the 

 Turkey Buzzard, whose manner of flight it so exactly imitates as to 

 seem of the same species, only in miniature, or seen at a more 

 immense height." Wilson was at a loss to comprehend how these 

 two birds, whose food and manners in other respects are so different, 

 should so frequently associate together in the air. This Elite meas- 

 ures fourteen inches in length, and three feet in extent of wings, an 

 enormous spread of wing as compared with the size of the body. 



Astdb pai/dmbabids. American Goshawk. — Wilson says of this 

 bird : " If this be not the celebrated Goshawk formerly so much 

 esteemed in falconry, it is very closely allied to it." It is a common 

 winter visitor in New England. Professor Verrill says that it breeds 

 in Maine. Audubon says of it : " His flight is extremely rapid and 

 protracted. He sweeps along the margins of the fields, through the 



