280 NAUCLERUS FURCATUS. 



pupae of tlie locust, or that insect itself. Although when on 

 wing they move with a grace and ease which it is impossible 

 to describe, yet on the ground they are scarcely able to walk." 

 In the stomach of one which I opened in the presence of Mr 

 Audubon were six slender light green snakes, one of them 

 twenty-two and a half inches in length, together with a large 

 larva, three inches long, and two coleopterous insects. In an- 

 other, the stomach contained a green snake nineteen inches 

 long, six lizards, and four very large coleopterous insects, with 

 two eggs of reptiles seven twelfths and a half long. 



" The Swallow-tailed Hawk pairs immediately after its ar- 

 rival in the Southern States, and as its courtships take place 

 on the wing, its motions are then more beautiful than ever. 

 The nest is usually placed on the top branches of the tallest 

 oak or pine tree, situated on the margin of a stream or pond. 

 It resembles that of Corvus Americanus externally, being 

 formed of dry sticks, intermixed with Spanish moss, and is 

 lined with coarse grasses and a few feathers. The eggs are 

 from four to six, of a greenish- white colour, with a few irregu- 

 lar blotches of dark brown at the larger end. The male and 

 the female sit alternately, the one feeding the other." 



Young. — " The young are at first covered with buff-coloured 

 down. Their next covering exhibits the pure white and black 

 of the old birds, but without any of the glossy purplish tints of 

 the latter. The tail, which is at first but slightly forked, be- 

 comes more so in a few weeks, and at the approach of autumn 

 exhibits little difference from that of the adult birds. The 

 plumage is completed the first spring." 



