SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 193 



Suborder FALCONES. Vultures, Falcons, Hawks, 

 Buzzards, Eagles, Kites, Harriers, etc. 



Family FALCONID^. Vultures, Falcons, Hawks, 

 Eagles, etc. 



Subfamily ACCIPITRIN"^. Kites, Buzzards, Hawks, 

 Goshawks, Eagles, etc. 



Genus ELANOIDES Vieillot. 



ELANOIDES FORFICATUS (Linn.). 



138. Swallow-tailed Kite. (327) 



Head, neck and under parts, white; back, wings and tail, lustrous black; 

 feet, greenish -blue; claws, pale. Length, ye/»ci/e, 23-25; wing, l()-17i; tail, 14; 

 male, a little smaller. 



Hab. — Southern United States, especially in the interior, from Pennsylvania 

 and Mimaesota southward, throughout Central and South America; westward 

 to the Great Plains. Casual eastwai-d to southern New England. Accidental 

 in England. 



Nest, on a tree, constructed of sticks, hay, moss, etc. 



Eggs, two, rarely three, whitish, blotched and spotted with chestnut - 

 brown. 



In the course of its extensive wanderings, this bold, dashing Kite- 

 has been known to visit Ontario. In the " List of Birds of Western 

 Ontario," mention is made of a pair having spent a summer about 

 eight miles north-west of London, and there is also a record of one 

 having alighted on the top of a flagstaff at Ottawa, where it was 

 closely examined through a glass and satisfactorily identified. 



The food of this species consists chiefly of snakes, lizards, grass- 

 hoppers, locusts, etc., and the fact of these not being abundant in 

 Ontario readily accounts for the absence of the birds. According to' 

 Audubon, the Swallow-tailed Hawk feeds chiefly on the wing, pounces 

 on his prey upon the ground, rises with it and devours it while 

 flying. "In calm weather," he further observes, "they soar to an 

 immense height, pursuing the large insects called musquito hawks, 

 and performing the most singular evolutions that can be conceived, 

 using their tail with an elegance peculiar to themselves." 



In Dr. Fisher's report it is classed as harmless in its relation to 

 agriculture. 



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