insects called musquito hawks, and performing the most
singular evolutions that can be conceived, using their tail
with an elegance of motion peculiar to themselves. Their
principal food, however, is large grasshoppers, grass-caterpillars,
small snakes, lizards, and frogs. They sweep close
over the fields, sometimes seeming to alight for a moment
to secure a snake, and holding it fast by the neck, carry
it off, and devour it in the air. When searching for
grasshoppers and caterpillars, it is not difficult to approach
them under cover of a fence or tree. When one is then
killed and falls to the ground, the whole flock comes over
the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it off. An excellent
opportunity is thus afforded of shooting as many as may
be wanted, and I have killed several of these Hawks in this
manner, firing as fast as I could load my gun.”*
“ The Swallow-tailed Hawk pairs immediately after its
arrival in the southern states ; and as its courtships take
place on the wing, its motions are then more beautiful than
ever. The nest is usually placed on the top branches of
the tallest oak or pine tree, situated on the margin of a
stream or pond. I t resembles that of a Carrion Crow externally,
being formed of dry sticks, intermixed with Spanish
moss, and is lined with coarse grasses and a few feathers.
The eggs are from four to six, of a greenish white colour,
with a few irregular blotches of dark brown at the larger end.
The male and the female sit alternately, the one feeding
the other.—The young are at first covered with buff-coloured
down. Their next covering exhibits the pure white and
black of the old birds, but without any of the glossy purplish
tints of the latter. The tail, which at first is but slightly forked,
becomes more so in a few weeks, and at the approach of
• Mr. Nuttall says, that the Swallow-tailed Kites seize upon the nests of
locusts and wasps, and, like the Honey-Buzzard, devour both the insects and
their larvae.
autumn exhibits little difference from that of the adult birds.
The plumage is completed the first spring. Only one brood
is raised in the season.— The species leaves the United
States in the beginning of September, moving off in flocks,
which are formed immediately after the breeding season is
over.”
The figure and description here given were taken from a
preserved specimen in the Museum of the Zoological Society,
the whole length of which was twenty inches ; the
beak bluish black, the cere lighter blue, the irides dark;
the whole of the head, neck, breast, belly, under surface
of the wings, sides of the body, thighs, and under tail-
coverts, pure white ; the back, wing-primaries, secondaries,
upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers, black, with a purplish
metallic lustre ; the tertials black on the outer webs, but
patched with pure white on the inner; tail very deeply
forked; legs and toes greenish blue ; claws faded orange
colour.