166 Birds of Colorado 
Mississippi Kite. Ictinia mississippiensis. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 329—Colorado Record—Cooke 97, pp. 73,3160. 
Description.—_Male—Head, neck, secondaries and under-parts greyish- 
white, rest of the upper-parts bluish-slate, becoming black on the 
primaries and tail; wing-quills with a narrow indistinct stripe of 
chestnut-rufous on the outer webs and larger spots of the same on the 
inner ; bases of the feathers of the head, neck and under-parts white, 
and often showing through; concealed white spots on the scapulars ; 
iris lake-red; bill, cere and claws black; feet red. Length 14-15; 
wing 11-50; tail 6-60; culmen -90; tarsus 1-35. 3 
The female is larger—wing 11-75; it has the head and secondaries 
darker, and less chestnut-rufous on the primaries. An immature bird 
has the head streaked black and white, whiter on the throat; the back, 
wings and tail with tawny or white edges and the lower-parts whitish, 
heavily streaked with rusty-rufous; iris and feet brownish. 
Distribution.—The south-eastern United States from southern Illinois 
and South Carolina to Texas, Mexico and Guatemala; not uncommon 
in southern Kansas. 
This Kite is a straggler in Colorado. Breninger informed Cooke 
that an example taken near Trinidad was preserved in Denver, and 
Aiken reports that he once observed an example near Colorado Springs. 
Genus CIRCUS. 
Face rather Owl-like, surrounded by an incomplete ruff ; bill strong, 
beset by bristles; the edge of the upper mandible lobed, but hardly 
toothed ; nostrils oval; wings long, the outer primary shorter than 
the fourth, the seventh and eighth the longest; the outer three to 
five primaries emarginate on the inner web ; tail long about 2 of wing, 
almost even; legs long, tarsus clearly exceeding the middle toe and 
claw, but shorter than the tibia, with scutes before and behind. 
A widely spread genus found all over the world, with one species 
only in the United States. 
Marsh-Hawk. Circus hudsonius. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 331—Colorado Records—Allen 72, pp. 152, 159 ; 
Tresz 81, p. 188; Drew 81, p. 141; 85, p. 17; Allen & Brewster 83, 
p. 197; Beckham 97, p. 121; Morrison 89, p. 7; Lowe 94, p. 267; 
Cooke 97, pp. 73, 204; Henderson 03, p. 235; 09, p. 229; Warren 
06, p.20; 08, p.20; 09, p.14; Gilman 07, p. 153; Rockwell 08, p. 161. 
Description—Male—Above silvery or bluish-ash, seldom pure, nearly 
always obscured by dusky and traces here and there of the juvenal 
tawny ; upper tail-coverts white, wing-quills chiefly dusky with white 
bases; tail banded more or less distinctly with dusky, the terminal 
one most distinct; below, the throat and breast slightly ashy 
