SPECIES 11. FALCO FURCATUS.* 
SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 
[Plate LI. — Fig. 2.] 
Linx. Syst. 1 29. — Lath, i, 60.— Hirundo ma.xima Peruviana 
avis prcedatoris calcaribus instructa, Feuillre, Voy. Peru, 
tom, II, 33. — Catesb. i, 4. — Le Milan de la Caroline, Briss. i, 
418. — Buff, i, 221. — Turt. Syst. 149. — .drct. Zool. p, 210, 
jyo. 108. — Pealr’s Museum, J^o. 142. 
This very elegant species inhabits the southern districts of 
the United States in summer; is seldom seen as far north as 
Pennsylvania, but is very abundant in South Carolina and 
Georgia, and still more so in West Florida, and the extensive 
prairies of Ohio and the Indiana territory. I met with these 
birds, in the early part of May, at a place called Duck-creek, in 
Tennessee, and found them sailing about in great numbers near 
Bayo Manchac on the Mississippi, twenty or thirty being 
within view at the same time. At that season a species of Ci- 
cada, or locust, swarmed among the woods, making a deafen- 
ing noise, and I could perceive these Hawks frequently snatch- 
ing 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 colour at will, also furnishes the Swallow-tailed 
Hawk with a favourite morsel. These lizards are sometimes 
of the most brilliant light green, in a few minutes change to a 
dirty clay colour, and again become nearly black. The Swal- 
low-tailed Hawk, and Mississippi Kite, feed eagerly on this 
lizard; and, it is said, on a small green snake also, which is the 
mortal enemy of the lizard, and frequently pursues it to the 
* F. forficalvs, Linn; Syst. i, p. 89, Sp. ii, ed. 10. — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 22, M). 
41. — Milvus furcahts, Vieillot, Ois. de V.im. Sept. vol. i, p. 38, pi. 10. 
