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THE SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 



Falco furcatus, Linn. 



PLATE LXXII. Male. 



The flight of this elegant species of Hawk is singularly beautiful 

 and protracted. It moves through the air with such ease and grace, that 

 it is impossible for any individual, who takes the least pleasure in observ- 

 ing the manners of birds, not to be delighted by the sight of it whilst on 

 wing. Gliding along in easy flappings, it rises in wide circles to an im- 

 mense height, inclining in various ways its deeply forked tail, to assist the 

 direction of its course, dives with the rapidity of lightning, and, sudden- 

 ly checking itself, reascends, soars away, and is soon out of sight. At 

 other times a flock of these birds, amounting to fifteen or twenty indivi- 

 duals, is seen hovering around the trees. They dive in rapid succession 

 amongst the branches, glancing along the trunks, and seizing in their 

 course the insects and small lizards of which they are in quest. Their 

 motions are astonishingly rapid, and the deep curves which they describe, 

 their sudden doublings and crossings, and the extreme ease with which 

 they seem to cleave the air, excite the admiration of him who views them 

 while thus employed in searching for food. 



A solitary individual of this species has once or twice been seen in 

 Pennsylvania. Farther to the eastward, the Swallow-tailed Hawk has 

 never, I beUeve, been observed. Travelling southward, along the At- 

 lantic coast, we find it in Virginia, although in very small numbers. Be- 

 yond that State it becomes more abundant. Near the Falls of the Ohio, 

 a pair had a nest and reared four young ones, in 1820. In the lower 

 parts of Kentucky it begins to become numerous ; but in the States far- 

 ther to the south, and particularly in parts near the sea, it is abundant. 

 In the large prairies of the Attacapas and Oppellousas, it is extremely 

 common. 



In the States of Louisiana and Mississippi, where these birds are abun- 

 dant, they arrive in large companies, in the beginning of April, and are 

 heard uttering a sharp plaintive note. At this period I generally re- 

 marked that they came from the westward, and have counted upwards 

 of a hundred in the space of an hour, passing over me in a direct easter- 



