Читать книгу A Synopsis of the Birds of North America - John James Audubon - Страница 10

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 papillæ; 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 Ictinia, while the nostrils, instead of being elliptical, are round, as in the Falcons.

17. 1. Ictinia plumbea, Gmel. Mississippi Ictinia. – Mississippi Kite

Plate CXVII. Male and Female.

Head, secondary quills, and lower parts light ash-grey; back and wing coverts dark leaden-grey; primaries black, margined externally with deep red; tail bluish-black; scutella dark purplish-red.

Male, 14, 36. Female, 15.

From Texas, where it is abundant, to North Carolina; up the Mississippi to Natchez. Migratory.

Mississippi Kite, Falco Mississippiensis, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. iii. p. 80.

Falco plumbeus, Bonap. Syn. p. 90.

Mississippi Kite, Falco plumbeus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. ii. p. 108, v. v. p. 374.