733 



FALCONID.E. 



KALCONID^E. 



731 



dressing and oiling their feathers. At all other times however it is 

 extremely difficult to get near them, as they are generally on wing 

 through the day, and at night rest on the higher pines and cypresses, 

 bordering the river bluffs, the lakes, or the swamps of that district 

 of country. They always feed on the wing. In calm and warm 

 weather 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 titil with an elegance of motion 

 peculiar to themselves. Their principal food however is large grass- 

 hoppers, grass-caterpillars, small snakes, lizards, and frogs. They 

 sweep close over the fields, sometimes seeming to alight for a 

 moment to secure a snake, and holding it fast by the neck, carry it 

 off and devour it in the air. When searching for grasshoppers and 

 caterpillars, it is not difficult to approach them under cover of a 

 fence or tree. When one is then killed and falls to the ground, the 

 whole flock come over the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it 

 off. An excellent opportunity is thus afforded of shooting as many 

 as may be wanted, and I have killed several of these hawks in this 

 manner, firing as fast as I could load my gun. The Swallow-Tailed 

 Hawk pairs immediately after its arrival in the southern states ; and 

 as its courtships take place on the wing, its motions are then more 

 beautiful than ever. The nest is usually placed on the top branches 

 of the tallest oak or pine tree, situated on the margin of a stream 

 or pond. It resembles that of a carrion crow externally, being 

 formed of dry sticks, intermixed with Spanish moss, and is lined 

 with coarse grasses and a few feathers. The eggs are from four to 

 six, of a greenish-white colour, with a few irregular blotches of dark 

 brown at the larger end. The male and female sit alternately, the 

 one feeding the other. The young are at first covered with buff- 

 coloured down. Their next covering exhibits the pure white and 

 black of the old birds, but without any of the glossy purplish tints 

 of the latter. The tail, which at first is but slightly forked, becomes 

 more so in a few weeks, and at the approach of autumn exhibits 

 little difference from that of the adult birds. The plumage is com- 

 pleted the first spring. Only one brood is raised in the season. The 

 species leaves the United States in the beginning of September, 

 moving off in flocks, which are formed immediately after the breeding 

 Reason is over." 



The Swallow -Tailed Hawk (Kaiirlenn furcnlus). 

 



This species, according to Mr. Nuttall, wijl, like the Honey-Buzzard, 

 prey upon locusts and wasps and their larva;, and make a regular 

 attack on their uexta. M. Vieillot states that it visits Peru and Buenos 

 Ayr.M. Mr. Yarrell gives it a place among the British birds on the 

 authority of two specimens, one killed at Balachoalist in Argyllshire 

 in 1772, and another taken alive in Shaw-Gill, near Hawes in Wens- 

 leyilaU-, Yorkshire, in 1805. Apparently to avoid the violence of a 

 tremendous thunderstorm and the clamorous persecution of a flock 

 of rooks which attacked it at the same instant, on the 6th of September, 

 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 the eye could trace it. (' Linn. Trans.,' 

 vol. xiv.) 



Jlilriu (of authors). Beak moderate, weak, subangular above ; 

 nostrils oblique, elliptical ; tarsi short; acrotarsia scutellated; wings 

 very long, fourth quill longest ; tail forked. 



St. ictinus, Falco Mihua of Linuxus ; M. nlyarls of Fleming and 

 Gould. 



This is the Milan Royal of the French from Belon to Buffon ; 

 Pojana, Milvio, Nicchio. and Nibbio, of the Italians ; Mother-Milan of 

 the Germans ; Glenta of Brunnich ; Glada of the ' Fauna Suecica ; ' 

 Kite, Fork-Tailed Kite, Glead, or Glede (Pennant eays from the Saxon 

 'Glida'), of the English; and Barcud of the Welsh. In some 

 of the counties of England it is called the Puttock, a name also some- 

 times bestowed provincially upon the Common Buzzard. In Essex it 

 is called the Crotched-Tailed Puddock. 



Length about 26 inches ; beak horn-colour ; cere and irides yellow ; 

 feathers of the head and neck grayish-white, streaked along the shaft 

 with ash-brown ; feathers of the back and wing-coverts dark brown 

 in the centre, broadly edged with rufous ; inner web of some of 

 the tertials edged with white ; primaries nearly black ; upper 

 tail-coverts rufous ; tail-feathers reddish-brown, the outer webs of 

 one uniform colour, the inner webs barred with dark brown ; the 

 outer tail-feather on each side the darkest- in colour ; tail deeply 

 forked ; chin and throat grayish-white, streaked with dusky ; breast, 

 belly, and thighs, rufous-brown, each feather with a central longitu- 

 dinal streak of dark brown ; under surface of the wings near the body 

 rufous, with dark brown feathers edged with red-brown towards the 

 outer part of the wing ; under tail-coverts plain rufous-white ; under 

 surface of the tail-feathers grayish-white, with the dark bars of the 

 upper surface showing through ; tarsi and toes yellow ; claws black. 

 (Yurrcll.) The females are larger than the males. 



Kite (J/i/rnj Uliiiiu). 



The Kite sails gracefully in the air, now describing circles, and 

 anon with outspread tail remaining stationary. It pounces on its 

 prey, consisting of moles, mice, leverets, rabbits, unfledged birds, and 

 the young of the Gallinaceous tribe especially. It was, when more 

 plentiful than it is at present, a great scourge to the poultry-yard. It 

 will eat frogs and snakes; and in the 'Magazine of Natural History' 

 an observer bears witness to its taking fish from a broad river near 

 which ho resided. The nest, made of sticks and liued with soft 



| materials, is usually built on the fork of a tree in a thick wood. 



i The eggs are two, sometimes three, short oval, 2 inches 2 lines in 

 length by 1 inch 9 lines in breadth. They are of a dirty white, with 

 a few reddish-brown spots at the large end. The female lays early in the 

 season, and she often makes a vigorous defence when her nest is attacked. 

 The Kite is found in France, Italy, Switzerland, anil Germany ; 

 less abundant in Russia ; more rare in Holland ; migratory in autumn. 

 (Temminck.) Very common near Rome, especially near the herds of 

 cattle. (Bonaparte.) It also occurs in Siberia, and the country about 

 Lake Baikal ; and has been observed in Egypt, and several parts of 

 Africa north of the equator. In Ireland it does not seem to be 

 known. In Britain, especially in the southern counties, it is become 



