THE MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
78 
The young wnen fledged have the bill and claws black, the cere and feet 
dull yellow ; the upper parts brownish-grey, the scapulars and quills tipped 
with white, the former also margined with yellowish-brown ; the primary 
and secondary coverts are also tipped with white ; the smaller wing-coverts 
are brownish-black ; the outer webs of all the tail-feathers are more or less 
brownish-grey towards the end. The lower parts are white, the feathers on 
the breast tinged with brownish-yellow at the end, and with the shaft 
yellowish-brown. The lower wings-coverts are all white. 
Genus YIL— ICTINIA, Vieillot. 
Bill very short, wide at the base, much compressed toward the end ; upper 
mandible with the dorsal line decurved in its whole length, the sides slightly 
convex, the tip narrow and acute, the edges with an obtuse lobe ; lower 
mandible with the angle very wide, the dorsal line ascending and convex, 
the tip rather broad and obliquely truncate. Nostrils round, lateral, with a 
central papilla. Head rather large, roundish, broad, flattened ; neck short, 
body compact. Legs rather short ; tarsus stout, covered anteriorly with 
scutella ; toes scutellate above, scabrous beneath, with pointed papillae ; claws 
rather long, curved, acuminate, flattened beneath. . Plumage rather compact. 
Wings very long, the third quill longest. Tail long, emarginate. 
This genus is easily distinguished from Elanus ; the tarsi and toes being 
scutellate in this, and scaly in that ; and the festoon on the upper mandible is 
much more prominent in the Ictinia, while the nostrils, instead of being 
elliptical, are round, as in the Falcons. 
THE MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
Ictinia plumbeus, Gmel. 
PLATE XVII. — Male and Female. 
When, after many a severe conflict, the southern breezes, in alliance with 
the sun, have, as if through a generous effort, driven back for a season to 
their desolate abode the chill blasts of the north ; when warmth and plenty 
are insured for awhile to our happy lands ; when clouds of anxious Swallows, 
returning from the far south, are guiding millions of Warblers to their 
Yol. I. 12 
