MISSISSIPPI KITE. 369 



Dunbar, Esq., where the bird represented in the plate was 

 obtained, after being slightly wounded ; and the drawing 

 made with great care from the living bird. To the hospi- 

 tality of the gentleman above mentioned, and his amiable 

 family, I am indebted for the opportunity afforded me of pro- 

 curing this and one or two more new species. This excellent 

 man, whose life has been devoted to science, though at that 

 time confined to bed by a severe and dangerous indisposition, 

 and personally unacquainted with me, no sooner heard of my 

 arrival at the town of Natchez, than he sent a servant and 

 horses, with an invitation and request to come and make his 

 house my home and head-quarters, while engaged in exploring 

 that part of the country. The few happy days I spent there 

 I shall never forget. 



In my perambulations I frequently remarked this hawk 

 sailing about in easy circles, and at a considerable height in 

 the air, generally in company with the turkey buzzards, 

 whose manner of flight it so exactly imitates as to seem the 

 same species, only in miniature, or seen at a more immense 

 height. Why these two birds, whose food and manners, in 

 other respects, are so different, should so frequently associate 

 together in air, I am at a loss to comprehend. We cannot 

 for a moment suppose them mutually deceived by the simi- 

 larity of each other's flight : the keenness of their vision for- 

 bids all suspicion of this kind. They may perhaps be engaged, 

 at such times, in mere amusement, as they are observed to 

 soar to great heights previous to a storm ; or, what is more 

 probable, they may both be in pursuit of their respective food. 

 One, that he may reconnoitre a vast extent of surface below, 

 and trace the tainted atmosphere to his favourite carrion ; the 



fined to America, inhabiting the southern states of the northern continent, 

 South America, and Mexico. It will be characterised by a short bill ; 

 short, slender, scutellated, and partly feathered tarsi, and with the outer 

 toe connected by a membrane ; the claws, short ; wings, very long, 

 reaching beyond the tail ; the tail, even. Bonaparte thinks that it should 

 stand intermediate between Falco and Milvus, somewhat allied to Buteo. 

 —Ed. 



VOL. I. 2 A 



