WHITE-HEADED SWALLOW-KITE. 279 



he being the only person who has described them from obser- 

 vation. The following condensed statement will be found to 

 contain all that is necessary for our purpose. 



The Swallow-tailed Hawk is not uncommon in Texas. In 

 the States of Louisiana and Mississippi, where it arrives early 

 in April, it is abundant ; in the large prairies of the Attacapas 

 and Appellousas it is extremely common ; in Florida and Vir- 

 ginia it is of rare occurrence ; it is sparingly met with in South 

 Carolina, and has been seen once or twice in Pennsylvania. 

 Its flight is singularly beautiful, its motions in the air combin- 

 ing the utmost grace and ease. " Gliding along in easy flap- 

 pings, it rises in wide circles to an immense height, inclining in 

 various ways its deeply forked tail, to assist the direction of its 

 course, dives with almost the rapidity of lightning, and, sud- 

 denly checking itself, reascends, soars away, and is soon out of 

 sight. At other times a flock of these birds, amounting to fif- 

 teen or twenty individuals, is seen hovering around the trees. 

 They dive in rapid succession amongst the branches, glancing 

 along the trunks, and seizing in their course the insects and 

 small lizards of which they are in quest. Their motions are 

 astonishingly rapid, and the deej) curves which they describe, 

 their sudden doublings and crossings, and the extreme ease 

 with which they seem to cleave the air, excite the admiration 

 of him who views them while thus employed in searching for 

 food. They always feed on the wing. In calm and warm 

 weather, they soar to an immense height, pursuing the large 

 insects called musquito-hawks, and performing the most sin- 

 gular evolutions that- can be conceived, using their tail With an> 

 elegance of motion peculiar tp themselves. Th^r pri/iGipali 

 food however is large grasshoppers, grass-caterpillars, small 

 snakes, lizards, and frogs. They sweep close over the fields, 

 sometimes seeming to alight for a moment to secure a snake, 

 and holding it fast by the neck, carry it oft' and devour it in 

 the air. They are very fond of frequenting the. creeks, which 

 in that country are much encumbered with 'drifted logs and 

 accumulations of sand, in order to pick up some of the nume- 

 rous water-snakes which lie basking in the sun. At other 

 times they dash along the trunks of trees, and snap off the 



