276 
SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 
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 
cicada, or locust, swarmed among the woods, making a 
deafening 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 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 Swallow-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 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 
I am aware of none that feed so decidedly on the wing as that now described ; 
in every thing, it will appear more like a large Swallow than an accipitrine 
bird. 
Mr Audubon remarks another curious circumstance, at variance with the 
wary manners of the Falconidce. “ When one is killed, and falls to the ground, 
the whole flock comes over the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it off. I have 
killed several of these Hawks in this manner, firing as fast as I could load my 
gun.” 
This bird occurred to the late Dr Walker, at Ballachulish, in Argyle- 
shire, in 1792. Another specimen was taken near Howes, in Wensleydale, 
Yorkshire, by W. Fotheringill, Esq. and communicated to the London Society, 
November, 1823. — Ed. 
* This animal, if I mistake not, is the Lacerta 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. 
