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MISSISSIPPI KITE. 

 FALCO MISISIPFIEJVSIS. 

 [Plate XXV Fig. 1, Male.] 



Pe ale's Museum, No. 403. 



THIS new species I first observed in the Mississippi territory, 

 a few miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William Dunbar, 

 esquire, where the bird represented in the plate was obtained, after 

 being slightly wounded; and the drawing made with great care 

 from the living bir i. To the hospitality of the gentleman above 

 mentioned and his amiable family, I am indebted for the oppor- 

 tunity afforded me of procuring this and one or two more new spe- 

 cies. This excellent man (whose life has been devoted to science) 

 tho at that time confined to bed by a severe and dangerous indis- 

 position, 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 sail- 

 ing 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 similarity of each other's flight : the keenness of 



