Swallow-tailed Kite 165 
outer one never shorter than the inner one, and never 
reversible ; hind toe not elevated above the others. 
For key of the genera, see p. 162. 
Genus ELANOIDES. 
Bill rather weak ; nostrils oval and oblique; wings long, acute and 
pointed, tenth (outer) primary about equal to sixth, ninth and tenth 
longest ; two outer primaries emarginate on the outer web; tail very 
long, often nearly equal to wing; very strongly forked; the outer 
feathers about twice the length of the central pair; tarsus short, half 
feathered, elsewhere with reticulate scales. 
This genus contains only one species. 
Swallow-tailed Kite. Hlanoides forficatus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 327—Colorado Record—Cooke 97, pp. 73, 160. 
Description.—Male—Head and neck all round, a band across the rump 
and the whole of the under-parts, including the under wing- and under 
tail-coverts, white; back, wings and tail glossy black with greenish 
lustre ; iris black, bill bluish-black, cere and legs bluish. Length 20-5; 
wing 15-75; tail 10-5 up to 14-0; culmen -9; tarsus 1-3. 
The female is larger—wing 17-0. Young birds have white tips to 
some of the wing- and tail-feathers, and the head with narrow brown 
shaft-lines. 
Distribution.—Chiefly met with in the middle and southern United 
States, from Minnesota and Virginia south through Texas and Mexico 
to South America. 
The Swallow-tailed Kite is a very rare straggler in Colorado, and 
has been met with only by Aiken. He saw one at Leadville in August, 
1871; and the same month in 1877, two were brought to him in the 
flesh; one of these was killed close to Colorado Springs, and is now 
in the Colorado College Museum ; the other at Manitou Park in Teller 
co., at about 7,700 feet. 
Genus ICTINIA. 
Bill moderate, edge of upper mandible slightly lobed; nostrils 
circular; wing long; eighth primary longest ; the tenth (outer) about 
equal to the fourth ; two outer primaries emarginate on the inner web ; 
tail nearly even ; tarsus half feathered with a row of transverse scutes 
in front. 
A genus containing two species, confined to temperate and tropical 
America. 
