368 MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



edged with bluish, and sometimes minutely tipt with white ; 

 legs and feet, lead colour ; bill, a dusky bluish horn colour ; 

 eye, large, full, and black. 



The female is of a dark drab colour, tinged with blue, and 

 considerably lightest below. I suspect the males are subject 

 to a change of colour during winter. The young, as usual 

 with many other species, do not receive the blue colour until 

 the ensuing spring, and, till then, very much resemble the 

 female. 



Latham makes two varieties of this species; the first, wholly 

 blue, except a black spot between the bill and eye ; this bird 

 inhabits Brazil, and is figured by Brisson, "Ornithology" 

 iii. 321, No. 6, pi. 17, fig. 2. The other is also generally of 

 a fine deep blue, except the quills, tail, and legs, which are 

 black ; this is Edwards' " blue grosbeak, from Angola," pi. 

 125 ; which Dr Latham suspects to have been brought from 

 some of the Brazilian settlements, and considers both as mere 

 varieties of the first. I am sorry I cannot at present clear up 

 this matter, but shall take some farther notice of it hereafter. 



MISSISSIPPI KITE. {Falco Mississippiensis.) 



PLATE XXV.— Fig. 1.— Male. 



Peale's Museum, No. 403. 



ICTINIA PLUMBEA.—Vieillot.* 



L'lctinie ophiophaga, Ictinia ophiophaga, Vieill. Gall, des Ois. pi. 17. — Faucon 

 ophiophaga, 2d edit, du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ii. p. 103, female (auct. 

 Vieill.) — Falco plumbeus, Bonap. Synop. p. 30. 



This new species I first observed in the Mississippi territory, 

 a few miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William 



* 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 con- 



