THE MISSISSIPPI KITE. 73 



The young when fledged have the bill and claws black, the cere and feet 

 dull yellow; the upper parts brownish grey, the scapulars and quills tipped 

 with white, the former also margined with yellowish-brown; the primary 

 and secondary coverts are also tipped with white; the smaller wing-coverts 

 are brownish-black; the outer webs of all the tail-feathers are more or less 

 brownish-grey toward the end. The lower parts are white, the feathers on 

 the breast tinged with brownish-yellow at the end, and with the shaft 

 yellowish-brown. The lower wing-coverts are all white. 



Genus VII.— ICTINIA, Vieillot. 



Bill very short, wide at the base, much compressed toward the end; upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line decurved in its whole length, the sides slightly 

 convex, the tip narrow and acute, the edges with an obtuse lobe; lower 

 mandible with the angle very wide, the dorsal line ascending and convex, 

 the tip rather broad and obliquely truncate. Nostrils round, lateral, with a 

 central papilla. Head rather large, roundish, broad, flattened; neck short, 

 body compact. Legs rather short; tarsus stout, covered anteriorly with 

 scutella; toes scutellate above, scabrous beneath, with pointed papillae; claws 

 rather long, curved, acuminate, flattened beneath. Plumage rather compact. 

 Wings very long, the third quill longest. Tail long, emarginate. 



This genus is easily distinguished from Elanus; the tarsi and toes being 

 scutellate in this, and scaly in that; and the festoon on the upper mandible is 

 much more prominent in the Ictinia, while the nostrils, instead of being 

 elliptical, are round, as in the Falcons. 



THE MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



-f-ICTINIA PLUMBETJS, Gmel. 



PLATE XVIL— Male and Female. 



When, after many a severe conflict, the southern breezes, in alliance with 

 the sun, have, as if through a generous effort, driven back for a season to 

 their desolate abode the chill blasts of the north; when warmth and plenty 

 are insured for a while to our happy lands; when clouds of anxious Swallows, 

 returning from the far south, are guiding millions of Warblers to their sum- 



Vol. I. 12 



