278 NAUCLERUS FURCATUS. 



The very short, thick tarsi, strong, scutellate and tuberculate 

 toes, and long taper-pointed claws, entirely unfit it for walk- 

 ing, and its extremely elongated wings and tail render it 

 more aerial in its habits than any other of this essentially 

 aerial tribe of birds. The feathers are oblong and rounded, 

 but unless on the back and wings blended. The first quill is 

 equal to the fifth, the second shorter than the fourth, and the 

 third longest. 



The cere, edges, and base of the bill are light blue, the rest 

 black ; the iris dark ; the feet greenish-blue, the claws flesh- 

 coloured. The feathers of the head, neck, breast, and other 

 lower parts, are white, slightly tinged with grey ; the rest of 

 the plumage black, glossed with purplish-blue. 



Length to end of tail 22 inches, to end of wings 19 ; extent 

 of wings 47; bill along the ridge 1^% ; wing from flexure 18 ; 

 difference between the middle and outer tail-feathers 8 ; tar- 

 sus \\ ■, first toe j\, its claw j% ; second toe j%, its claw i% ; 

 third toe ^h-, its claw f^ ; fourth toe j\, its claw j^^. 



Female. — The female is distinguished from the male only 

 by her superior size. 



Habits. — The proper country of this bird is the tropical and 

 temperate regions of America. In summer it seldom advances 

 farther northward than Kentucky and Virginia, so that not- 

 withstanding its buoyant and rapid flight, its occurrence in Bri- 

 tain is calculated to excite some surprise. An individual is 

 recorded by the late Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History 

 in Edinburgh, to have been killed at Ballychulish in Argyll- 

 shire, in 1772 ; and another was caught in Shawgill, near Ask- 

 rigg, in Wensleydale, in Yorkshire, in September 1805. As 

 the Scottish specimen does not appear to have been preserved, 

 and that obtained in England made its escape a month after its 

 capture, it might be doubted whether the species has a decided 

 claim on our recognition, were it not that we can hardly suppose 

 it to have been mistaken in either case, its form and colouring 

 being so peculiar. For its habits and distribution reference 

 must be made to the Ornithological Biography of Mr Audubon, 



