96 
SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 
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 Flo- 
rida, at a vast height in the air, sailing about with great steadi- 
ness; and continue to be seen thus, passing to their winter quar- 
ters, for several days. They usually feed from their claws 
as they fly along. Their flight is easy and graceful, with some- 
times 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 ne- 
ver yet met with their nests. 
These birds are particularly attached to the extensive prai- 
ries of the western countries, where their favourite snakes, li- 
zards, grasshoppers and locusts, are in abundance. They are 
sometimes, though rarely, seen in Pennsylvania and New Jer- 
sey, and that only in long and very warm summers. A spe- 
cimen now in the Museum of Philadelphia, was shot within a 
few miles of this city. We are informed, that one was taken 
in the South sea, off the coast which lies between Ylo and Ari- 
ca, in about lat. 23° south, on the eleventh of September, by 
the Reverend the Father Louis Feuillee.t They are also com- 
mon in Mexico, and extend their migrations as far as Peru. 
The Swallow-tailed Hawk measures full two feet in length, 
and upwards of four feet six inches in extent; the bill is black; 
cere yellow, 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 low- 
er 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; 
* This animal, if I mistake not, is the Lacerla bullaris, or Bladder Lizard, of 
Turton, vol. i, p. 666. The facility with which it changes colour is sur- 
prising', and not generally known to naturalists. 
f Jour, des Obs. Tom. ii, 33. 
