59 



SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 



Elanus furcatus, FLKMINO. 



JMllvus furcatus, JKNYNS. 



Nauclerus furcatus, GOTLD. 



Falco furcatus, WILSON. 



Elanus Perhaps from ElaunoTo drive or chase. Furcatus Forked. 



THIS elegant species is very abundant in the southern and 

 south-western states of America to the extensive prairies of 

 the latter of which it is peculiarly attached, and becomes much 

 less frequent towards the north, particularly on the eastern 

 side of that continent. It is found also in Peru and Buenos 

 Ay res. 



Two specimens only have as yet occurred in this country, 

 driven over probably by tempestuous winds. One of them 

 was killed in the year 1772, at Balachoalist, in Argyleshire, 

 and the other was captured in Wensleydale in Yorkshire, at 

 Shaw-gill, near Hawes, on the 6th. of September, 1805. The 

 'pitiless pelting' of a tremendous storm, and the simultaneous 

 buffetings of a flock of Rooks, drove it to take shelter in a 

 thicket, in which it was caught before it was able to escape. 

 It was kept by the person who captured it, for a month, but 

 it then made its escape through a door which had accidentally 

 been left open. It alighted for a short time on a tree not 

 far off, from which it soon afterwards rose upwards spirally 

 to a vast height, and then, guided by its instinct, went off 

 in a southerly direction as long as it could be observed. These 

 facts are recorded in the fourteenth volume of the 'Linnsean 

 Transactions,' in a letter from W. Fothergill, Esq., of Carr- 

 end, near Askrigg, the next town to Hawes. 



The Swallow-tailed Kite is migratory in those countries of 

 which it is an inhabitant, visiting certain parts in the spring 

 to breed, and leaving them again in the autumn. 



The flight of this bird is singularly easy and graceful, as 



