76 
FALCO FURCATUS. 
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 favourite 
snakes, lizards, grasshoppers, and locusts are in abun- 
dance. They are sometimes, though rarely, seen in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that only in long 
and very warm summers. A specimen now in the Mu- 
seum 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 eleventh of 
September, by the Reverend the Father Louis Feuillee.* 
They are also common 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 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 
f Jour . des Obs . tom. ii, 33. 
