48 



FALCONING. ftAUCLERUS. FALCO. 



resembling that of the Owls ; stomach very large, round, its 

 muscular coat very thin ; intestine short and rather wide ; 

 no coeca ; cloaca large, globular. Nostrils round, with a 

 central papilla. Eyes large. Aperture of ear roundish and 

 rather large. Head roundish, flattened above ; neck short ; 

 body compact. Feet short, tarsus very short, robust, covered 

 all round with scales : toes of moderate size, scutellate above ; 

 claws rather long, well curved, slender, acuminate. Plumage 

 blended, glossy ; wings extremely elongated, rather narrow, 

 pointed, the third quill longest ; tail extremely long, very 

 deeply forked. 



9. NAUCLERUS FURCATUS. WHITE-HEADED SWALLOW-KITE. 



Head, neck, and lower parts white ; back, wings, and tail 

 black ; bill bluish-black, feet greenish, claws flesh-coloured. 



Male, 22, 47, 18, 1&,1, \^ T V 



This bird is distinguished from all the British falconine 

 species by its very long and deeply forked tail, as well as by 

 its peculiar colouring. Its proper country is the tropical and 

 temperate regions of America. Two individuals, however, are 

 recorded as having been met with in Britain : one killed at 

 Ballychulish in Argyleshire, in 1772 ; the other caught at 

 Shawgill in Yorkshire, in September 1805. Its flight is 

 described as singularly beautiful, its motions astonishingly 

 rapid. It generally feeds while on wing ; and its food con- 

 sists of grasshoppers, insects, small snakes, lizards, and frogs. 



Swallow-tailed Hawk. Swallow-tailed Kite. 



Falco furcatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 129. Falco furcatus, 

 Audubon, Orn. Biog. i. 368; v. 371. Nauclerus furcatus, 

 Aud. Synop. 14. Nauclerus furcatus, White-headed Swal- 

 low-Kite, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iii. 277. 



GENUS IX. FALCO. FALCON. 



Bill short, very strong, of nearly equal breadth and height 

 at the base, moderately compressed toward the end ; upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line convex from the base, the sides 

 convex, the edges with a medial festoon and an anterior 

 angular process, the tip decurved, trigonal, acute ; lower 

 mandible with the angle wide and rounded, the dorsal line 

 very convex, the edges involute, with a rounded notch on 



