SPECIES 12. F^LCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS* 
MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
[Plate XXV.— Fig. I, Male.] 
Peale’s Museum, No. 403. 
This new species I first observed in the Mississippi territory, 
a few miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William Dun- 
bar, esquire, where the bird represented in the plate was obtain- 
ed, after being slightly wounded; and the drawing made with 
great care from the living specimen. To the hospitality of the 
gentleman above mentioned, and his amiable family, I am in- 
debted for the opportunity afibrded me of procuring 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 wdth me, no sooner heard of my arrival at the 
town of Natchez, than he sent a servant and horses, with an in- 
vitation 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 for- 
get. 
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 man- 
ner 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 
* This species, although supposed to be new by Wilson, had been figatted 
and described by VieiUot, in his “ Histou-e Naturelle des Oiseaux de I’Am^ri- 
que Septentrionale,” under the name of Miivtis cenchris. VieUlot refers it to 
the F. plumbeus of Gmelin, and the SpMed-tailed Hobby of Latham. Gen. Syn. i, 
p. 106. 
