SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 105 



proved, what I expected would be the case, that the Falco taken 

 at Hardraw Scan- was the Swallow-tailed Falcon or Falco fur- 

 catus of Lmnaeus." Unaccountable then as the fact may 

 be, it rests on the evidence of perfectly competent witnesses 

 and there is accordingly no room for doubt in this case. 



Since this time three more examples of the Swallow-tailed 

 Kite have been said to have been killed in England (Zoologist, 

 pp. 4166, 4366, 4406, 4407, 5042) but on authority that 

 must at present be regarded as insufficient, while a fourth, 

 asserted to have been shot on the Mersey in June 1843, and 

 to have been formerly in the Macclesfield Museum, was sold 

 by public auction in London in June, 1861. 



The Swallow-tailed Kite is a native of the warmer parts of 

 America, and, except in the instances above cited, is not 

 known to have occurred elsewhere in the Old World. In the 

 United States, where it is a summer visitor, Mr. George N. 

 Lawrence includes it among the birds of New York and 

 New Jersey, and it occasionally strays to Philadelphia ; but 

 in the middle of the continent it occurs more regularly fur- 

 ther to the north, and, according to Dr. Brewer, breeds in 

 Wisconsin, where it was also noticed by Dr. Hoy ; while 

 Nuttall states that it ascends the Mississippi to the Falls of 

 St. Anthony, and Dr. Coues records it from Fort Leavenworth 

 on the Missouri. It does not however seem to occur* to the 

 west of the Rocky Mountains. In the Atlantic States it is 

 not uncommon from North Carolina southward, frequenting 

 the banks of rivers but not the sea-board. It breeds in South 

 Carolina, Georgia and all the States bordering the Gulf of 

 Mexico. Thence it appears to be spread throughout the 

 conterminous countries lying to the southward at least as far 

 as the Tropic of Capricorn, having been obtained by Natterer 

 near Rio de Janeiro, while Vieillot states that it visits Buenos 

 Ayres and occurs in Peru. In the West India Islands it has 

 been observed in Jamaica by Mr. Richard Hill and in Cuba 

 by Dr. Gundlach. In Trinidad, Leotaud says that it is a 

 regular visitant in the rainy season from July to October, 

 but that he never met with the yovmg. 



The habits of this bird have been described in detail by 



VOL. I. P 



