LAUGHING HAWK 



* 15. Herpetotheres cachinnans cachinnans 



(Linnaeus) 

 Laughing Hawk 



Sexes alike. Length, about 480 mm. (19.00 



in.); tail, about 230 mm. (9.00 in.). Brown 

 above, the slightly crested head and neck buffy 

 white, finely streaked with black; sides of head 

 to front part of cheeks black; front part of cheeks, 

 a patch under the eye, a collar around the neck, 

 and under parts, white; upper tail coverts buff; 

 wing quills brown and rufous barred with black; 

 tail brown crossed by four bands of whitish buff. 

 Bill grayish black; cere orange; feet yellowish. 



A conspicuously marked hawk, its prey prin- 

 cipally reptiles. It is particularly fond of perch- 

 ing on the top of a tall dead tree in some clearing 

 in the forest, and has a strange cry, loud and far 

 reaching. Doctor Frank M. Chapman says, 

 "Resembling a call of a man in great pain and 

 ending in an agonized wail." "The guttural 

 laugh which precedes the long call of this species 

 can be heard only p, short distance." (Rich- 

 mond.) 



16. Elanoides forficatus yetapa Bonn and 



Vieillot 

 Swallow-tailed Kite 



Elanoides forficatus STONE, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 

 1918, p. 250. 



Sexes alike. Length, about 535 mm. (21.00 

 in.); tail, 330 mm. about (13.00 in.). Tail cleft 

 138 



