230 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
not draw one, and determined,” as he then wrote in his 
journal, “never to draw from a stuffed bird.” “TI first 
saw the Mississippi Kite,” he added, when “ascending 
in the steamboat Paragon, in June, 1819.” Wilson, 
on the other hand, in his knowledge of this interesting 
bird was far in advance of his later rival, for his first 
observations were made in 1810, “in the Mississippi ter- 
ritory, a few miles below Natchez, on the plantation of 
William Dunbar, esquire, when the bird represented in 
the plate was obtained, after being slightly wounded; 
and the drawing made with great care from the living 
bird.” “For several miles, as I passed near Bayo Man- 
chak,’”’ Wilson continues, “‘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, evi- 
dently in pursuit of these locusts; so that insects, it 
would appear, are the principal food of this species.”** 
Wilson never succeeded in procuring the female of this 
graceful hawk, and his editor, George Ord, evidently 
continued the quest, for we find his correspondent, John 
Abbot, writing him from “Scriven County Georgia Mar. 
1814”: “Are you acquainted with the female yet of 
the Louisiana Kite?’** 
We have entered into the detailed history of this plate 
because of the unfavorable comment which it has pro- 
voked, but it is easier to be critical than to be either just 
or correct, and without more definite knowledge than 
we possess, it would be unfair to censure Audubon too 
much or to shift the blame too completely upon the 
shoulders of another. 
*% American Ornithology, vol. iii, p. 80. ; 
2 See Witner Stone, “Some Letters of Alexander Wilson and John 
Abbot,” The Auk, vol. xxiii, 1906. 
