242 MISSISSIPPI KI 'E. 
and which, in the three individuals of this species 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 prin-: 
cipal 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 mice, 
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 
penetrate 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 greater savage of the two. 
What effect education might have had onthis species under’ the tutor- 
ship 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 affinity of this 
bird to that family or subdivision of the Falco genns, 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 exte- 
rior 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 sorel; pri- 
mary 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 perceived unless the feathers be blown 
aside ; tail, slightly forked, and, as well as the rump, jet black; legs, 
vermilion, tinged with orange, and becoming blackish towards the 
toes; claws, black; iris of the eye, dark red; pupil, black. 
This was a male. With the female, which is expected soon from 
that country, I shall, in a future volume, communicate such further 
ae ae relative to their manners and incubation as I may be able 
to collect. : 
