Species XII. FALCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS* 
MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
[Plate XXV. Fig. 1, Male.] 
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 Avith great care from the living speci- 
men. To the hospitality of the gentleman above mentioned, and his 
amiable family, I am indebted for the opportunity afibrded 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 unac- 
quainted 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, Avhose 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 their vision forbids 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, 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 favorite carrion ; the other in search of those large 
beetles, or coleopterous insects, that are known often to wing the higher 
regions of the air ; and which, in the three individuals of this species 
* This species, although supposed to be new by Wilson, had been figured and 
described by Vieillot, in his " Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de l'Am6rique 
Septentrionale," under the name of Milvus cenchris. Vieillot refers it to the 
F. phimbeus of Gmelia, and the Spotted-tailed Hobby of Latham. Gen. Syn i., p. 
106. 
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