SPECIES 11. FALCO FURCATUS.* 

 SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 



[Plate LI. Fig. 2.] 



LINN. Syst. \ 29. LATH, i, 60. Hirundo maxima Peruviana 

 avis prcedatoris calcaribus instructa, FEUILLEE, Voy. Peru, 

 torn, n, 35. CATESB. i, 4. Le Milan de la Caroline, BRISS. i, 

 418. BUFF, i, 221. TURT. Syst. 149. Arct. Zool. p. 210, 

 JVo. 108. PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 142. 



THIS very elegant species inhabits the southern districts of 

 the United States in summer; is seldom seen as far north as 

 Pennsylvania, but is very abundant in South Carolina and 

 Georgia, and still more so in West Florida, and the extensive 

 prairies of Ohio and the Indiana territory. I met with these 

 birds, in the early part of May, at a place called Duck-creek, in 

 Tennessee, and found them sailing about in great numbers near 

 Bayo Manchac on the Mississippi, twenty or thirty being 

 within view at the same time. At that season a species of Ci- 

 cada, or locust, swarmed among the woods, making a deafen- 

 ing noise, and I could perceive these Hawks frequently snatch- 

 ing them from the trees. A species of lizard, which is very 

 numerous in that quarter of the country, and has the faculty of 

 changing its colour at will, also furnishes the Swallow-tailed 

 Hawk with a favourite morsel. These lizards are sometimes 

 of the most brilliant light green, in a few minutes change to a 

 dirty clay colour, and again become nearly black. The Swal- 

 low-tailed Hawk, and Mississippi Kite, feed eagerly on this 

 lizard; and, it is said, on a small green snake also, which is the 

 mortal enemy of the lizard, and frequently pursues it to the 



* F.forficatus, LINN. Syst. i, p. 89, Sp. 11, ed. 10. LATH. Ind. Orn.p. 22, JVb. 

 41. Milvusfurcatus, VIEILLOT, Ois. de VAm. Sept. vol. i, p. 28, pi. 10. 



