192 NOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Nauclerus forflcatus, (Linn.) Eidgway. 



SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK; FORK-TAILED KITE. 



Accipiter cauda furcata, Catesby, Carolina, I, pi. iv, 1754. Falco forficatus, Lixn. Syst. 

 Nat. I, 89, 1758. Falco fiircatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 129, 1766. —Pexx. Arct. 

 Zobl. p. 210, No. 108, pi. X. — Gmel. Syst. Nat. p. 262. Nauclerus forficatus, Ridg- 

 WAY, P. A. N. S. Phil. Dec. 1870, 141. — Daud. Tr. Oni. II, 152. — Shaw, 

 Nat. Misc. pi. cciv; Zool. VII, 107. — Wils. Am. Oni. pi. li, f. 3, 1808. — Attd. 

 Birds Am. pi. 72, 1831 ; Orn. Biog. I, 368 ; V, 371. — Boxap. Ann. Lye. N. Y. II, 

 31 ; Isis, 1832, 1138. Milvus furcatus, ViElLL. Ois. Am. Sept. pi. x, 1807. Ela- 

 noides fiircatus. Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. p. 44, 1844. — Strickl. Orn. Syn. I, 141, 

 1855. — Owen, Ibis, II, 1860, 240 (habits). Nauclerus furcatus, Vig. Zool. Journ. 

 II, 387 ; Isis, 1830, p. 1043. — Less. Man. Orn. I, 101 ; Tr. Orn. p. 73. — Swains. 

 Classif. B. I, 312 ; II, 210, 1837. — Bonap. List, p. 4 ; Cat. Ucc. Eur. p. 20 ; Consp. 

 Av. p. 21. — Goi"LD, B. Ei;r. pi. xxx. — AuD. Syuop. p. 14, 1839. — Rich. Scliomb. 

 Reis. Brit. Guian. p. 735. — De Kay, Zool. N. Y. II, p. 12, pi. vii, f. 15. — Gray, 

 Gen. B. fol. .sp. 1, pi. ix, f. 9; Gen. & Subgen. Brit. Mns. p. 6. — Brew. (Wils.) 

 Synop. Am. Orn. p. 685. — Woodh. Sitgr. Exp. Zuni & Colorado, p. 60. — Kaup, 

 Monog. Faleonidai, Cont. Orn. 1850, p. 57. ■ — Brewer, Oology, I, 1857, 38. — Cass. 

 Birds N. Am. 1858, 36. — Coues, Prod. Orn. Ariz. 1866, p. 12. — Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 

 525 (Texas, nesting). — Gray, Hand List, I, 27, 1869. Elanus furcatus, Vig. Zool. 

 Journ. I, 340. — Steph. Zool. XIII, pi. ii, p. 49. — Cuv. Reg. An. (ed. 2), I, p. 334. — 

 James. (Wils.) Am. Orn. I, 75. — Jard. (Wils.) Am. Orn. II, 275. — Jard. Orn. 

 Eur. p. 29. — NuTT. Man. p. 94. Accijriter milvus carolinensis, Briss. Orn. I, 418, 

 1760. Elanoidcs yetapa, Vieill. Enc. Metli. Ill, 1205, 1823. 



Sp. Char. Adult, male and female. Whole head and neck, lining of wings, broad 

 band across the rump, and entire lower parts, pure white. Interscapulars and lesser 

 wing-coverts, rich, dark, soft, bronzed pui-plish-black. Rest of upper parts, including 

 lower part of rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail, more metallic slaty-black, feathers some- 

 what greenish basally, more bluish terminally, with a peculiar, soft milky appearance, 

 and with very smooth compact surface. Tertials almost entirely Avhite. black only at tips. 

 White on under side of wing occupying all the coverts, and the basal halt' of tlie secon- 

 daries. Wing, 15.40 - 17.70 ; tail, 12.50 - 14.50 ; tarsus, 1.00 - 1.30 ; middle toe, 1.15 - 1.20. 



Younger. Similar, but with the beautiful soft purplish-bronzed black of shoulders and 

 back less conspicuously diffei'ent from the more metallic tints of other upper parts. 

 Young (youngest? 18,457, Cantonment Burgwyn, New Mexico). The black above less 

 slaty, with a brownish cast, and with a quite decided gloss of bottle-green ; secondaries, 

 primary coverts, primaries, and tail-feathers finely margined terminally with white. 

 Feathers of the head and neck with fine shaft-lines of black. 



Hab. Whole of South and Middle America, and southern United States ; very rarely 

 northward on Atlantic coast to Pennsylvania ; along the Mississippi Valley to Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin; breeding in Iowa (Sioux City) and Illinois; exceedingly abundant in 

 August in southern portion of the latter State; Cuba; accidental in England. 



Localities : Guatemala (Scl. Ibis. I, 217) ; Cuba (Cab. Journ. II, Ixxxiii) ; Brazil (Cab. 

 Journ. V, 41) ; Panama (Lawr. VII, 18GL 289) ; N. Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 325, 

 common, breeding) ; Veragua (Salv. 1867, 158) ; Costa Rica (Lawr. IX, 134) ; Minnesota 

 (thirty miles north of Mille Lac, lat. 47° ; Trippe, Birds of Minn., Pr. Essex Inst. VI, 

 1871, p. 11.3). 



A pair marked as from England (56,099, 9, and 56,100, <?, " in England 

 geschosscn "; Schliiter Collection) are smaller than the average of American 



