MISSISSIPPI KITE. 
371 
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 
affinity 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 lower 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 perceived 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, commu- 
nicate such farther information relative to their manners and 
incubation, as I may be able to collect. 
