MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
369 
obtained, after being slightly wounded ; and the drawing made 
with great care from the living bird. To the hospitality of the 
gentleman above mentioned, and his amiable family, I am 
indebted for the opportunity afforded 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 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, 
wdiose 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, they 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 favourite carrion ; the 
genus, however, is retained, and appears yet confined to America, inhabiting 
the southern states of the northern continent, South America, and Mexico. 
It will he characterized by a short bill ; short, slender, scutellated, and partly 
feathered tarsi, and with the outer toe connected by a membrane ; the claws, 
short ; wings, very long, reaching beyond the tail ; the tail, even. Bonaparte 
thinks that it should stand intermediate between Falco and Milvus, somewhat 
allied to Buteo Ed. 
