72 FALCONID.E. 



in considering that it required to be distinguished generi- 

 cally from the species belonging to the genera Milv^us and 

 Elanus, Avith which it was previously associated, I have 

 also availed myself of the detailed generic characters pub- 

 lished by Mr. Swainson in his Natural History and Clas- 

 sification of Birds, volume ii. p. 21 0. 



The first of these two examples of the Swallow-tailed 

 Kite just referred to as having been taken in Britain was 

 killed at Balachoalist, in Argyleshire, in 1772, and, according 

 to Dr. Fleming, was recorded by the late Dr. Walker in 

 his Adversaria for 1772, page 87, and for 1774, page 153. 

 The occurrence of the second example is thus recorded in 

 the fourteenth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society, page 583 : — " Dr. Sims, F.L.S. communicated to 

 the Society an extract of a letter from W. Fothcrgill, Esq. 

 of Carr-end, near Arkrigg, in Yorkshire, containing a notice 

 of the Falco furcatus Linn, having been taken alive in 

 Shaw-gill, near Hawes, in Wensleydale, in that county, on 

 the 6th of September 1805. Mr. Fothergill states, that, 

 apparently to avoid the violence of a tremendous thunder- 

 storm, and the clamorous persecution of a flock of Rooks 

 which attacked it at the same instant, it took shelter in 

 a thicket, where it was seized before it could extricate itself. 

 The person who caught it kept it a month ; but a door being 

 accidentally left open, it made its escape. It first alighted on 

 a tree at no great distance, from which it soon ascended in 

 a spiral flight to a great elevation, and then went steadily off 

 in a southerly direction as far as tlie eye could trace it. 



The Swallow-tailed Kite, the Falco furcatus of Linneus, 

 is only an occasional visitor to this country : it is a native 

 of the southern states of North America, where it remains 

 during summer, but is observed in autumn going farther 

 south to pass the Avinter. According to Vieillot, it visits 

 Peru and Buenos Ayies. 



