About the middle of August, they all wing their way southward. These are out by the end of July, and are fed by the parent birds until well practised in the art of procuring subsistence. At times, congregating to the number of twenty or more, these birds are seen sweeping around some tree, catching the large locusts which abound in those countries at an early part of the season, and reminding one of the Chimney Swallows, which are so often seen performing similar evolutions, when endeavouring to snap off the little dried twigs of which their nests are composed.Įarly in May, the thick-leaved bay-tree (Magnolia grandiflora), affords in its high tops a place of safety, in which the Hawk of the South may raise its young. The Mississippi Kite thus extends its migrations as high as the city of Memphis, on the noble stream whose name it bears, and along our eastern shores to the Carolinas, where it now and then breeds, feeding the while on lizards, small snakes, and beetles. Casting upwards a sidelong look of fear, it remains motionless, so well does it know the prowess of the bird of prey: but its caution is vain it has been perceived, its fate is sealed, and the next moment it is swept away. It is the red-throated panting lizard that has made its way to the highest branch of a tree in quest of food. Suddenly he spies some creeping thing, that changes, like the chameleon, from vivid green to dull brown, to escape his notice. He glances towards the earth with his fiery eye sweeps along, now with the gentle breeze, now against it seizes here and there the high-flying giddy bug, and allays his hunger without fatigue to wing or talon. “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 summer residence when numberless insects, cramped in their hanging shells, are impatiently waiting for the full expansion of their wings when the vernal flowers, so welcome to all, swell out their bursting leaflets, and the rich-leaved Magnolia opens its pure blossoms to the Humming-bird –then look up, and you will see the Mississippi Kite, as he comes sailing over the scene. This hand-colored lithograph is Plate #16 from the Octavo Edition of Birds of America – created from 1840 to 1844.Īudubon’s Field Notes that Accompanied This Illustration: Pictured (right) is John J Audubon’s illustration of the Mississippi Kite, today commonly referred to as the Mississippi Kite.
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