82 



MISSISSIPPI KITE. 



watch every movement I made; erecting the feathers of his hind 

 head, and eyeing me with savage fierceness; considering me, no 

 doubt, as the greatest savage of the two. What effect education 

 might have had on this species under the tutorship of some of the 

 old European professors of falconry, I know not; but if extent of 

 wing, and energy of 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, dis- 

 tinguished by the name of Kites, which sail without flapping the 

 wings, and eat from their talons as they glide along. 



The Mississippi Kile measures fourteen inches in length, and 

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

 terior 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 pri- 

 maries 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 spot- 

 ted 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, communicate such 

 further information relative to their manners and incubation, as I 

 may be able to collect. 



