38 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



lined with coarse grasses and moss. The eggs were two in number ; the ground 

 color was white, which was marked with faint brown dashes. Dr. Heermann adds, 

 that the eggs of this species are quite different from those of the European A. 

 lagopus. 



Smce the above was in type, and just as these pages are passing through the 

 press, I have been favored, through the kmdness of Dr. Heermann and the attention 

 of Mr. Krider, with the loan of an egg of this Hawk obtained by the former in Cali- 

 fornia. It is represented in Plate III, fig. 26. Its measurements are, length 23^2 

 inches ; breadth, \\\. The ground color of the egg is a yellowish-white. This is 

 marked with large blotches of a light, but very distinct, purplish-gray. Inter- 

 spersed with these are a few light spots and lines of umber-brown. 



M I L, V I IV ^ . 

 NAUCLERUS FURCATUS. 



Falco furcatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 129. 



WiLS. Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 70, pi. li, fig. 3. 

 " " NuTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 95. 



" " AuD. Orn. Biog. I, 1840, 368 ; V, 371, pi. Ixxii. 



" " De Kay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., Birds, 1844, pi. vii, fig. 15. 



Elanus furcatus, Bonap. Syn. 1828, p. 31. 

 Nauclerus furcatus, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 4. 

 " " AuD. Syn. 1839, p. 14. 



" » Vigors, Z06I. Jour. VII, 387. 



" " AuD. Birds of Am. I, 1840, 78, pl. xviii. 



" " Gould, Birds of Europe, I, pl. xxx. 



" « Cassin, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal), 1854, p. 105. 



VuLG. — The Swallow-tailed Hawk. The Fish-tail Haick. Le Milan de Caroline (Cuvier, 

 Regn. Anim. I, 322). 



This species has a wide distribution, but except in the Southwestern States does 

 not appear to be anywhere abundant.' Its most northern limit on the Atlantic is 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where, however, it is probably of only accidental 

 occurrence. Farther west it is much more frequent, and is found on the tributaries 

 of the Ohio and Mississippi, as far to the north as the State of Wisconsin and the 

 Territory of Minnesota.^ It is not uncommon in the Atlantic States, from North 

 Carolina south, frequenting the banks of rivers, but not the seaboard. It nests in 

 South Carolina and Georgia, and in all the States which border on the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico. It also occasionally breeds as far to the northwest as Wisconsin, as I am 



^ Wilson speaks of this Hawk as very abundant in South Carolina and Georgia ; but this is contrary to 

 my information. It is found in those States not unfrequently, but rather occasionally than abundantly. 



2 According to Mr. Nuttall, individuals have been seen along the Mississippi as far north as the Falls 

 of St. Anthony, in lat. 44°. 



