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Range (Breeds from South Carolina)

Breeds from South Carolina, southern Illinois, and Indian Territory southward through Mexico to the Argentine Republic; rare east of the Mississippi.

Nest, in trees. Eggs, three to four, "handsomely marbled or clouded with various shades of rich madder-brown on a paler (sometimes whitish) ground, 1.71 x 1.31" (Ridgw.).

This species is not often found east of the Mississippi. It frequents open, marshy situations. A pair which I observed in Texas hunted by hovering over the reeds, sustaining a position facing the wind, and about forty feet from the ground, by a gentle movement of the wings. 329. Ictinia mississippiensis (Wils.). MISSISSIPPI KITE. Ad.-. Head, neck, exposed margins of the secondaries, and under parts gray; back bluish slate-color; primaries streaked or spotted with rufous-chestnut; tail black, without bars. Im. - Head streaked with black and white; back blackish, tipped with rufous or white, the concealed parts of the feathers white and with generally one blackish bar; primaries without rufous; tail with three or four broken white bars; below buffy, streaked with rufous and grayish brown. L., 14.00; W., 11-25; T., 6.50; B. from N., 60.