FALCONIDuE — ACCll'ITRIX.E: HAWKS. 657 



nearly equals that of wing, the narrow, acuminate lateral feathers being more than twice as 

 long as middle pair when full grown. Wings also very long, thm, and acute; 2d and .3d ([uills 

 ft)rming the point; 1st about equal to 4th ; 1st and 2d emarginate on inner webs. Feet very 

 short, but stout ; tarsus feathered about i way down in front, elsewhere irregularly reticulate ; 

 toes mostly scutellate on top, but reticulate toward their bases, granular and padded under- 

 neath; claws short, stout, strongly arcuate, scooped out underneath, with sharp edges, that of 

 the middle dilated. Bill rather weak, with moderately convex culmen and small cere; the 

 cutting edge festooned. Nostrils oval, oblicjue. Head closely feathered on sides; a small 

 superorbital shield of a single bone. A beautiful genus, of a single species, related to Old 

 World Milvus (typical Kites) and esp<'cially to Nauclerus, with wliieh latter it has usually 

 been associated. 



E. forfica'tus. (Lat. forficatus, deeply forked. Figs. 448, 449.) Swallow-tailed Kite. 

 Snake Hawk. Adult ^ ^ : Head, neck, band on rump, and entire under parts, including 

 lining of wings, snow-white ; back, wings, and tail, glossy black, with various lustre, chiefly 

 green and violet. Bill bluish-black; cere, edges of mandibles, and feet pale bluish, the latter 

 tinged with greenish; claws light-colored. Length about 24.00, but very variable; extent 

 50.00; wing 15.50-17.50; tail up to 14.50, cleft more than J its length; tarsus about 1.25; 

 middle toe without claw rather less. Young : Similar ; less lustrous ; wing- and tail-feathers 

 white-tipped; feathers of head and neck pencilled with delicate shaft-lines of blackish. This 

 most elegant Kite, superlative in ease and grace of wing, floats, soars, and dashes over the 

 greater part of America, and even crosses the Atlantic on its buoyant pinions (Great Britain, 

 more than once, see Zool. June 15th, 1897, p. 270). It is abundant in the Southern U. S., 

 sometimes winging its way to the Middle States, even to New England, and regularly up the 

 whole ^Mississippi valley, to that of the Red Kiver of the North. While I was collecting on 

 the northern Boundary Survey, in Nortli Dakota, Manitoba, and Assiniboia, in 1873, and dur- 

 ing my exploration of the source of the Mississippi in Minnesota, in 1894, I was repeatedly 

 gratified by the spectacle of this impetuous bird, so like a colossal swallow in its flight, build, 

 and coloration. Its breeding range is irregularly coextensive with its general distribution in 

 North America ; the laying season is March-!May in the South, but May and June in the Upper 

 Mississippi and Red River valleys. The nest is placed on a tree, preferably atop a tall one, 

 and is constructed of sticks, hay, moss, etc.; eggs 1-4, oftener 2 or 3, averaging nearly 1.90 X 

 1.50, witli the usual range of variation in size and shape, wliite or whitish, irregularly blotched 

 and specked with rusty and rich dark chestnut-brown, in most cases in bold, handsome 

 patterns. 



Subfamily ACCIPITRIN>E : Hawks. 



General form strict, with small head, shortened wings, and lengthened tail and legs. 

 Tarsi approximately equal to tibia in length. Bill slu»rt, robust, high at base; toothless, but 

 usually with a prominent festoon; no central tubercle in the broadly oval nostril, nor keel of 

 palate anteriorly. Superciliary shield prominent. Coracoid arrangement as in Biiteoninie, 

 into which grou[» the present one grades. Wings concavo-convex ; .3d to Gth quills longest, 

 1st very short and more or less bowed inward, outer 3 to 5 emarginate or sinuate on inner 

 webs. Tail quite long, square or rounded, sometimes emarginate, nearly cquaUing wiui: in 

 length. Tarsi slender, longer than middle toe without chiw, usually ext«'nsively if not com- 

 pletely denuded of feathers, and scutellate before and behind ; but in sonu' cases the scales fuse 

 in a continuous boot, like that of a Thrush. This is an extensive group of medium-sized and 

 small Hawks, little if at all inferior in spirit of audacity to the true Falctms, though less jtow- 

 irfully ortranized, and in fact conforming in anatomical characters with Tintamiu(C rather tlian 

 with F(i}ioui)ur. In the teclinic of falconry, Accipifrituc are styled "ignoble," because tiie.se 

 short-winired Hawks rake after tlie (piarry, instead of plunging upon it like the " noble " long- 



