448 SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 
about in great numbers near Bayou Mai.hac, on the Mississippi, twen- 
ty or thirty being within view at thesame time. At that season, a spe- 
cies of cicada, or locust, swarmed among the woods, making a deafen- 
ing noise, and I could perceive these Hawks frequently snatching them 
from the trees. A species of lizard, which is very numerous in that 
quarter of the country, and has the faculty of changing its color at will, 
also furnishes the Swallow-tailed Hawk witha favorite morsel. These 
lizards are sometimes of the most brilliant light green; in a few min- 
utes change to a dirty clay color; and again become nearly black. 
The Swallow-tailed Hawk, and Mississippi Kite, feed eagerly on this 
lizard ; and, it is said, on a small, green snake also, which is the’mor- 
tal enemy of the lizard, and frequently pursues it to the very extremity 
of the branches, where both become the prey of the Hawk.* 
The Swallow-tailed Hawk retires to the south in October, at which 
season, Mr..Bartram informs me, they are seen in Florida, at a vast 
height in the air, sailing about with great steadiness ; and continue to 
be seen thus, passing to their winter quarters, for several days. They. 
usually feed from their Claws as they fly along. Their flight is easy 
and graceful, with sometimes occasional sweeps among the trees, the 
long feathers of their-tail spread out, and each extremity of it used 
alternately to lower, elevate, or otherwise direct their course. I have 
never yet met with their nests. | 
These birds are particularly attached to the extensive prairies of the 
western countries, where their favorite snakes, lizards, grasshoppers, 
and locusts, are in abundance. They are sometimes, though rarely, 
seen in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that only in warm and 
very long summers. A specimen, now in the Museum of Philadelphia, 
was shot within a few miles of that city. We are informed that one 
‘was taken in the South Sea, off the coast which lies between Ylo and 
Arica, in about lat. 23 deg. south, on the 11th of September, by the Rev- 
erend the Father Louis Feuillee.t They are also common in Mexicc 
and extend their migrations as far as Peru. 
“ The Swallow-tailed Hawk measures full two feet in length, and up- 
wards of four feet six inches in extent; the bill is black; cere, yel- 
low, covered at the base with bristles; iris of the eye, silvery cream, 
surrounded with a blood-red ring ; whole head and neck, pure white, 
the shafts, fine black hairs; the whole lower parts, also pure white ; 
the throat and breast, shafted in the same manner; upper parts, or 
back, black, glossed with green and purple ; whole lesser coverts, very 
dark purple ; wings, long, reaching within two inches of the tip of the 
tail, and black; tail, also very long, and remarkably forked, consisting 
of twelve feathers, all black, glossed with green and purple; several 
of the tertials, white, or edged with white, but generally covered by 
the scapulars ; inner vanes of the secondaries, white on their upper 
half, black towards their points; lining of the wings, white; legs, 
yellow, short, and thick, and feathered before half way below the knee ; 
claws, much curved, whitish; outer claw, very small. The greater 
* This animal, if I mistake not, is the Lacerta bullaris, or Bladder Lizard, of 
Turten, vol, i. p-666. The facility with which it changes color is surprising, and 
not generally known to naturalists. 
} Jour, des Obs. tom. ii. 33. 
