100 
^MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
more powerfully, causing such pain that I had no other alter- 
native but that of cutting the sinew of his heel with my penknife. 
The whole time he lived with me, he seemed to 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 affin- 
ity 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 low- 
er 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 per- 
ceived 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. 
