THE SWALLOW-TAILED FALCON. 



61 



for food, it follows the habit of many similar birds, and continually haunts the marshy 

 lands, where it is likely to find a plentiful supply of sustenance. The nest of this bird is 

 not unfrequently found in such localities, built in a thick bush well shaded with reeds. 

 Generally, however, it is placed upon a tree or a rock, after the fashion of the common 

 Kite. The eggs are greyish- white, covered irregularly with reddish spots. 



The colouring of the Arabian Kite is rather pleasing. The back and upper portions 

 are greyish-brown, the liead and throat being marked longitudinally with stripes of 

 black and white. The under parts 

 are reddish-brown, each feather 

 being streaked down its centre 



o 



with the deeper hue, and the 

 feathers of the thigh are dusky 

 red. The tail is- marked with 

 nine or ten transverse bands, and 

 is slightly forked. The length of 

 this species is not quite two feet. 

 As its plumage is so dark, it has 

 been termed the Black Kite by 

 many authors, and its house- 

 haunting propensities have earned 

 for it the specific title of "para- 

 siticus." 



THE beautiful bird which is so 

 well known under the appropriate 

 title of the SWALLOW-TAILED KITE, 

 is an inhabitant of various parts 

 of America, though it has occasion- 

 ally been noticed on the British 

 .shores, and in virtue of such casual 

 visits has taken its place as one 

 of the British birds. This species 

 seems to be distributed over a 

 considerable tract of country, ac- 

 cording to the observations of 

 many practical ornithologists. Mr. 

 Nuttal has the following remarks 

 on the habitat of the Swallow- 

 tailed Falcon. 



" This beautiful bird breeds 

 and passes the summer in the 

 warmer parts of the United States, 

 and is also probably resident in all 

 tropical and temperate America ; 

 emigrating into the southern as 

 well as the northern hemisphere. 

 In the former, according to Vieillat, 

 it is found in Peru, and as far as 



Buenos Ayres ; and though it is extremely rare to meet with this species as far as the 

 latitude of forty degrees, in the Atlantic States, yet, tempted by the abundance of the 

 fruitful valley of the Mississippi, individuals have been seen along that river as far as the 

 falls of St. Anthony, in the forty-fourth degree of north latitude. They appear in the 

 United States about the close of April or the beginning of May, and are very numerous 

 in the Mississippi territory, twenty or thirty being sometimes visible at the same time. 

 In the month of October they begin to return to the south, at which season Mr. Bateman 

 observed them in great numbers assembled in Florida', soaring steadily at great elevations 



ARABIAN KITE. MUmts 



