MISSISSIPPI KITE. 37! 



character, and ease and rapidity of flight, would have been 

 any recommendations to royal patronage, this species possesses 

 all these in a very eminent degree. 



The long pointed wings and forked tail point out the affinity 

 of this bird to that family, or subdivision of the Falco genus, 

 distinguished by the name of kites, which sail without 

 flapping the wings, and eat from their talons as they glide 

 along. 



The Mississippi kite measures fourteen inches in length, 

 and thirty-six inches, or three feet, in extent! The head, 

 neck, and exterior webs of the secondaries, are of a hoary 

 white ; the lower parts, a whitish ash ; bill, cere, lores, and 

 narrow line round the eye, black ; back, rump, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts, dark blackish ash ; wings, very long and pointed, 

 the third quill the longest ; the primaries are black, marked 

 down each side of the shaft with reddish sorrel ; primary 

 coverts also slightly touched with the same ; all the upper 

 plumage at the roots is white ; the scapulars are also spotted 

 with white — but this cannot be perceived unless the feathers 

 be blown aside ; tail, slightly forked, and, as well as the rump, 

 jet black ; legs, vermilion, tinged with orange, and becoming 

 blackish towards the toes ; claws, black ; iris of the eye, dark 

 red ; pupil, black. 



This was a male. With the female, which is expected 

 soon from that country, I shall, in a future volume, commu- 

 nicate such farther information relative to their manners and 

 incubation, as I may be able to collect. 



