MISSISSIPPI KITE. Q41 
MISSISSIPPI KITE—-FALCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS. —Fic. 116 
Mate. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 403. 
ICTINIA PLUMBEA, — Viri.iot.* 
L’Ictinie ophiophaga, Ictinia spplionhaee, Vieill. Gall. des Ois. pl. 17.—Faucon 
ophiophaga, 2d edit. du Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. ii. p. 105, female, (auct. 
teill.) — Falco plumbeus, Bonap. Synop. p. 30. : 
Tats new species I first observed in the Mississippi Territory, a few 
miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William Dunbar, Esq., 
where the bird represented in the plate was obtained, after being 
slightly wounded; and the drawing made with great care from the 
living bird. To the hospitality of the gentleman above mentioned, 
and his amiable family, I am indebted for the opportunity’ afforded me 
of procuring this and one or two more new species. This excellent 
man, whose life has been devoted to science, though at that time con- 
fined to bed by a severe and dangerous indisposition, and personally 
unacquainted with me, no sooner heard of my arrival at the town of 
Natchez, than he sent a servant and horses, with an invitation and 
request to come and make his house my home and head-quarters, 
while engaged in exploring that part of the country. The few happy 
days I spent there I shall never forget. ; 
In my perambulations I frequently remarked this Hawk sailing 
about in easy circles, and at a considerable height in the air, gener- 
ally in company with the Turkey Buzzards, whose manner of flight it’ 
so exactly imitates as to.seem the same species, only in miniature, or 
seen at a more immense height. Why these two birds, whose food 
and manners, in other respects, are so different, should so frequently 
associate together in air, I am at a loss to comprehend. We cannot 
for a moment suppose them mutually deceived by the similarity of 
each other’s flight: the keenness of their vision forbids all suspicion 
of this kind. They may perhaps be engaged, at such times, in mere. 
amusement, as they are observed to soar to great heights previous to 
a storm, or, what is more probable, they may both be in pursuit of 
their respective food ;— one, that he may reconnoitre a vast extent of 
surface below, and trace the tainted atmosphere to his favorite car- 
rion; the other in search of those large beetles, or coleopterous 
insects, that are known often to wing the higher, regions of the air; 
* This, from every authority, appears to be the Falco plumbeus of Latham. 
Vieillot has described it in his Gallerie des Oiseaux, under the title of Ictinia 
ophiophaga, descriptive of its manner of feeding; but has since restored the 
specific name to what it should be by the’ right of priority ‘entitled. The genus, 
however, is retained, and appears yet confined to America, inhabiting the Southern 
States of the northern continent, South America, and Mexico. It will be charae- 
terized by a short bill; short, slender, seutellated, and partly feathered tarsi, and 
with the outer toc connected by a membrane ; tae claws, short ; wings, very Jong, 
reaching beyond the tail; the tail, even. Bonaparte thinks that it should stand 
intermediate kar Falco and Milvus, somewhat allied to Buteo. — Ep. 
