98 FALCONID. 
nowhere common, it is said to occur also in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Southern 
Illinois, but it has not yet been recorded from Arizona or New Mexico ®. 
Although a regular migrant throughout Central America, very little concerning this. 
species has been recorded from within our limits. It was procured by Sallé in Jalapa, 
by Sumichrast at Mirador and Orizaba, and by Skinner in Guatemala, but did not 
come under our notice in that country. 
E. leucurus, like its relative the Swallow-tailed Kite, preys only upon small snakes, 
lizards and frogs, and grasshoppers and other insects. Its flight is graceful, resembling 
that of a Gull. 
The nest is placed in a tree, at a height of thirty or forty feet from the ground; it is 
composed of stout sticks and lined with cotton-wood bark or straw. The eggs, varying 
from three to five in number, are so thickly marked with red blotches that the creamy- 
white ground-colour is often obscured. 
GAMPSONYX. 
Gampsonyx, Vigors, Zool. Journ. ii. p. 69 (1825) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p.340; Ridgw. 
Bull. U. 8S. Geol. & Geogr. Surv. ii. p. 150. 
This genus contains but one species, which resembles a diminutive Elanus, though 
more strikingly coloured. Mr. Ridgway says the tail is more than two-thirds the 
length of the wing, whereas in Elanus it is less; and in Gampsonyz the scales of the 
feet are larger, and the transverse scutelle of the toes extend nearly to their base. 
It is probably only a rare visitor to the Southern States of Central America, but in 
South America it extends over a large area. 
1. Gampsonyx swainsoni. 
Gampsonyx swainsoni, Vigors, Zool. Journ. ii. p. 69'; Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 26, t. 9. f. 4°; 
Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p. 340°. 
Supra plumbea, scapularibus ad basin albis, secundariis albo terminatis; torque cervicali rufa; fronte et genis 
albis, flavo tinctis ; corpore subtus albo, hypochondriis et tibiis rufis; alis subtus albis; cauda plumbea, 
rectrice extima utrinque albo marginata, rectrice proxima in pogonio interno tantum albo limbata: rostro 
nigro, pedibus carneis. Long. tota circa 9-0, ala 6:4, caude 3-9, tarsi 1:1. (Descr. maris ex Leon, 
Nicaragua. Mus. nostr.) 
@ mari similis, sed paulo major. 
Hab. Nicaragua, Leon (Richardson).—SoutH AMERIcA generally, from Colombia and 
Guiana to South Brazil °. 
Although a bird of wide distribution in South America, with the exception of the 
pair obtained by Mr. Richardson at Leon in Nicaragua on December 1dth, 1892, 
we have no record of its occurrence within our limits. 
