ELANOIDES FORFICATUS I SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 1 03 



not the whole, but oftenest seen in spring, summer, and 

 fall, as it moves off when the waters close, and the frogs 

 and mice are in their winter quarters. The opposite 

 sexes are often mistaken for different species, but even 

 our brief description should suffice to correct such error. 



SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 

 ELANOIDES FORFICATUS (L.) Coues. 



Chars. Head, neck, and underparts, white ; back, wings, and tail, 

 lustrous black. Tail a foot or more long, deeply forficate ; wing, 

 15-18, pointed; feet small, greenish- blue ; claws pale; tarsi 

 reticulate and feathered half-way down in front ; toes hardly 

 webbed ; nostrils broadly oval. A beautiful bird, common in 

 the South Atlantic and Gulf States, where it is a marked feature 

 of the scenery in regions where the sunbeams are redolent of the 

 orange and magnolia, and where the air reeks with the pestilent 

 miasm of the moss-shrouded swamps that sleep in perpetual 

 gloom. But, imbued with a spirit of adventure, and possessing 

 unequalled powers of flight, it often wanders far from its southern 

 home to the bleak and windy fields of Dakota, the tamarack 

 fastnesses of Minnesota, the green slopes and gray crags of our 

 own beloved New England. 



Its occurrence in this portion of the United States is, 

 however, rare and casual. It was ascribed to Vermont, 

 no doubt correctly, by a writer of the last century, and 

 has been shot on Long Island. Coming to later dates 

 we find Mr. Allen speaking of its appearance at Whately, 

 Mass., about 1868 (Am. Nat., iii, 1870, p. 645) ; and Mr. 

 Merriam cites two Connecticut instances (B. Conn., 

 1877, p. 76). One of these occurrences was at Lyme, 

 New London Co., July 2, 1877 ; the other in the vicinity 

 of Portland, in the summer of 1861. Although the bird 



