FALCON. 275 



219— MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



Falco Mississippensis, Mississippi Kite, Amer. Orn. iii. pi, 25. f. 1. 



LENGTH I4in. ; extent of wing 3 ft. Bill, cere, lore, and a 

 narrow line round the eye, black; irides dark red ; head, neck, and 

 exterior webs of the second quills, hoary white ; lower parts whitish 

 ash ; back, rump, scapulars, and wing coverts, dark ash, inclining 

 to black ; wings very long and pointed, the third quill longest ; 

 primaries black, with reddish shafts ; the prime coverts also tinged 

 the same, but slightly ; all the upper parts of the plumage white at 

 the roots ; scapulars spotted white, but only seen when the feathers 

 are blowTi aside ; across the wing, just above the great quills, a bar 

 of white, arising from the ends of the secondaries being of that 

 colour ; tail slightly forked, jet black ; rump the same ; legs fine 

 orange red, towards the tail blackish; wings and tail equal in length. 



Inhabits the Mississippi, a few miles below Natchez, and thought 

 by the author to be a new species ; sails about in easy circles, and at 

 a considerable height, in company with the Carrion Vultures, and 

 imitates them in flight ; the principal part of the food seems to be 

 cicadae, as it was observed sweeping among the trees, in which they 

 abound ; likewise beetles and grasshoppers. 



Nn2 



