190 SWALLOW-TAILED NAUCLERUS. 
which attacked it at the same instant, it took 
shelter in a thicket, where it was seized before it 
could extricate itself. The person who caught 
it kept it a month ; but a door being accidentally 
left open, it made its escape. It first alighted on 
a tree at no great distance, from which it soon 
ascended in a spiral flight to a great elevation, 
and then went steadily off in a southerly direction 
as far as the eye could trace it.” 
The best accounts of the habits of this bird are 
to be found in the works of Wilson and Audubon. 
It is a native of the Southern States of North 
America, extending into Mexico, performing 
migrations southward from the colder districts, 
and, according to Audubon, never seen farther to 
the eastward than Pennsylvania. The most 
remarkable peculiarity in its history, is its great 
power of flight and the manner of feeding, which, 
when considered along with the slender form and 
elongated forked tail, are very strong evidences 
of its being the representative here of the inces- 
sorial Fissirostres. The flight is described by all 
as remarkably easy, graceful, and buoyant, and 
great use is made of the tail in directing the turns 
and windings. The food is snakes, lizards, and 
small reptiles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and large 
insects. Audubon says, that in pursuit of these 
they never alight, but clutch them up with an 
easy stoop, and without any apparent exertion, 
