168 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The markings vary from chocolate to reddish brown of different tints, 

 and mixed among these, in about one-half the specimens, are found shell 

 markings of lilac and lavender; ni an occasional specimen these predominate 

 over the first mentioned tints. In the series before me all the markings are 

 rather irregular in shape and are clustered about the larger end of the egg. 

 They are usually large, and seldom confluent. A few eggs are but slightly 

 marked, and the spots are small and fine, but none are entirely unspotted. 



The average measurement of seventeen specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 76.5 by 52 millimetres. The largest egg measures 84 

 by 55, the smallest 68.5 by 47 millimetres. 



Of the type specimens, No. 20704 (PI. 4, Fig. 7) was collected March 12, 

 1875, in Comal County, Texas, and No. 20705 (PL 4, Fig. 10) was collected 

 April 12, 1885, in the same county and place. Both types are from the Ben- 

 dire collection, and were obtained originally from the late Mr. E. Ricks cker, 

 of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. They show the heavier and lighter marked types 

 found in the eggs of this species. 



Family FALCONID^. Vultures, Falcons, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



6o. Elanoides forficatus (Linn^us). 



swallow-tailed kite. 



Falco forficatus Linn^us, Systema Naturse, ed. 10, i, 1758, 89. 



Elanoides forficatus CouES, Proceedings Academy ISTatural Sciences, Philadelpliia, 

 1875 345. 



(B 34, C 337, R 426, C 493, U 337.) 



Geographical range : Tropical and warm temperate portions of continental 

 America ; north in the interior regularly to Illinois, Iowa. Minnesota, casually to Man- 

 itoba, and Assiniboia, etc. ; along the Atlantic coast casually to Pennsylvania, New 

 York, and soiithern New England ; accidental in England. 



Although the l)reeding range of the Swallow-tailed Kite within the limits 

 of the United States must be considered as quite extensive, it is a very 

 irregular one, and the birds are only summer residents over the greater part 

 of their range. It breeds regularly in Florida and South Carolina, and 

 probably farther north along the Atlantic seaboard, in the States of North 

 Carolina and Virginia, and apparently even in New York State, where sev- 

 eral Kites were observed on different occasions in Rensselaer County, in 

 the latter part of July and the beginning of August, 1886, strongl)- sug- 

 gesting their breeding in that vicinity during the season in question. 



From Florida westward it is irregularly distributed through the Gulf 

 States, including the greater portion of Texas It also breeds in the interior 

 in suitable locahties throughout the entire length of the Mississippi Valle)^, 

 and in the States adjacent to our northern boundary, and a few pass this, as 

 it has been observed on different occasions in the British provinces of Assin- 

 iboia and Manitoba, in latitude 50°. 



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