368 
MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
lead colour ; bill, a dusky bluish horn colour ; eye, large, full, 
and black. 
The female is of a dark drab colour, tinged with blue, and 
considerably lightest below. I suspect the males are subject 
to a change of colour during winter. The young, as usual 
with many other species, do not receive the blue colour until 
the ensuing spring, and, till then, very much resemble the 
female. 
Latham makes two varieties of this species ; the first, wholly 
blue, except a black spot between the bill and eye ; this bird 
inhabits Brazil, and is figured by Brisson, Ornithology , iii. 
321, No. 6, pi. 17, fig. 2. The other is also generally of a 
fine deep blue, except the quills, tail, and legs, which are 
black ; this is Edwards’ <c Blue Grosbeak, from Angola,” 
pi. 125 ; which Dr Latham suspects to have been brought 
from some of the Brazilian settlements, and considers both as 
mere varieties of the first. I am sorry I cannot at present 
clear up this matter, but shall take some farther notice of it 
hereafter. 
MISSISSIPPI KITE. — FALCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS. 
Plate XXV. Fig. 1. Male. 
Peak's Museum, No. 403. 
ICTINIA PL UMBEA. — Vieillot. * 
L’lctinie ophiophaga, Ictinia ophiophaga, Vieill. Gall, des Ois. pi. 17. — Faucon 
ophiophaga, 2d edit, du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ii. p. 103, female, (auct. Vieill . ) 
— Falco plumbeus, JBonap. Synop. p. 30. 
This new species I first observed in the Mississippi terri- 
tory, a few miles below Natchez, on the plantation of William 
Dunbar, Esq. where the bird represented in the plate was 
* This, from every authority, appears to be the Falco plumbeus of Latham. 
Vieillot has described it in his Gallerie des Oiseaux , under the title of Ictinia 
opliiophaga, descriptive of its manner of feeding ; but has since restored the 
specific name to what it should be by the right of priority entitled. The 
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