SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 63 
ELANOIDES FURCATUS. 
SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 
(PLatE 6.) 
Accipiter milvus caroliniensis, Briss, Orn. i. p. 418 (1760), 
Falco fureatus, Zinn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 129 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Wilson, (Audubon), (Gould), (Bonaparte), &c. 
Milvus fureatus (Linn.), Vieill. Ors. Amér. Sept. p. 38, pl. 10 (1807). 
Elanoides furcatus (Zinn.), Bonn. et Vieill. Enc, Méth. iii. p. 1204 (1823). 
Elanoides yetapa, Bonn. et Vieill. tom. cit. p. 1205 (1823). 
Elanus fureatus (Linn.), Vig. Zool. Journ. i. p. 340 (1824). 
Nauclerus furcatus (Zinn.), Vig. Zool. Journ, ii. p. 387 (1825). 
Falco yetapa (Bonn. et Vieill.), Max. Beitr. Orn. Bras, iii. Abth. i. p. 141 (1880). 
Nauclerus forficatus (Linn.), Ridgway, Pr. Phil. Acad, 1870, p. 144. 
This singularly handsome bird appears to have once or twice wandered 
as far as our islands, but is not known ever to have visited any other part 
of Europe. Its claim to rank as a British bird rests upon the undoubted 
capture of two specimens. The first of these examples was at Ballachulish, 
in Argylshire, in the year 1772, and recorded by the late Dr. Walker, of 
the University of Edinburgh, in his manuscript journal for that year. 
The first published account of this capture was made by Fleming, in his 
‘History of British Animals.’ The precise circumstances under which it 
was taken, however, are not known. ‘The occurrence of the second 
specimen was recorded in the fourteenth volume of the ‘Transactions of 
the Linnean Society,’ under date November 4, 1823, by Dr. Simmons, on 
the authority of the late Mr. Fothergill, of Carr End, near Arkrigg, in 
Yorkshire. It was captured alive at Hardraw Scarr, near Hawes in 
Yorkshire. Newton, in his edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds, further 
corroborates the statement by publishing the original note of the bird’s 
capture, supplied to him by the son of the last-named gentleman, Mr. 
William Fothergill, of Darlington. This note states that “on the 6th of 
September, 1805, during a tremendous thunderstorm, a bird, of which a 
correct description follows, was observed flying about in Shaw Gill, near 
Simonstone, and, alighting on a tree, was knocked down by a stick thrown 
at it, which, however, did not prove fatal, as I saw it alive, and had an 
opportunity of carefully examining it four days after it was taken. The 
bird was kept to the 27th, and then made its escape, by the door of the 
room being left open while showing [it] to some company. At first it 
arose high in the air; but being violently attacked by a party of Rooks, 
it alighted in the tree in which it was first taken. When its keeper 
