Part 46

In their habits the European and the American birds seem to present other decided differences. The American is a very social bird, often living in large communities during the breeding-season. The European is found almost invariably in solitary pairs, and frequents fresh water almost exclusively. The American, though found also on large rivers and lakes, is much the most abundant on the sea-shore. The European bird rarely builds on trees, the American almost always. The latter rarely resorts to rocky cliffs to breed, the European almost uniformly do so. There is no instance on record of the American species attacking smaller birds or inferior land animals with intent to feed on them. The European species is said to prey on Ducks and other wild-fowl.

GENUS NAUCLERUS, VIGORS.

Nauclerus, VIG. 1825. (Type, Falco furcatus, LINN.; F. forficatus, LINN.) Elanoides, GRAY, 1848. (Same type.)

GEN. CHAR. Form swallow-like, the tail excessively lengthened and forked, and the wings extremely long. Bill rather small, and narrow; commissure faintly sinuated; upper outline of the lower mandible very convex, the depth of the mandible at the base being only about half that through the middle; gonys drooping terminally, nearly straight. Side of the head densely feathered close up to the eyelids. Nostril ovoid, obliquely vertical. Feet small, but robust; tarsus about equal to middle toe, covered with large, very irregular scales; toes with transverse scutellæ to their base; claws short, but strongly curved; grooved beneath, their edges sharp. Second or third quill longest; first shorter than, equal to, or longer than, the fourth; two outer primaries with inner webs sinuated. Tail with the outer pair of feathers more than twice as long as the middle pair.

The genus contains but a single species, the N. FORFICATUS, which is peculiarly American, belonging to the tropical and subtropical portions on both sides of the equator. The species is noted for the elegance of its form and the beauty of its plumage, as well as for the unsurpassed easy gracefulness of its flight. It has no near relatives in the Old World, though the widely distributed genus Milvus represents it in some respects, while the singular genus Chelictinia, of Africa, resembles it more closely, but is much more intimately related to Ictinia and Elanus.

=52994=, ♂. ½ =52994=, ♂. ½ =52994=, ♂. ¼ ¼

Nauclerus forficatus.]

Species.

=N. forficatus.= Head, neck, entire lower surface, and band across the rump, immaculate snowy-white; upper surface plain polished blackish, with varying lights of dark purplish-bronze (on the back and shoulders) and bluish-slaty, with a green reflection in some lights. Young, with dusky shaft-streaks on the head and neck, and the feathers of the upper parts margined with white. Wing, 15.40–17.70; tail, 12.50–14.50; culmen, .70–.80; tarsus, 1.00–1.30; middle toe, 1.15–1.20. Hab. The whole of tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate America. Accidental in England.

Nauclerus forficatus, (LINN.) RIDGWAY.

SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK; FORK-TAILED KITE.

Accipiter cauda furcata, CATESBY, Carolina, I, pl. iv, 1754. Falco forficatus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 89, 1758. Falco furcatus, LINN. Syst. Nat. p. 129, 1766.—PENN. Arct. Zoöl. p. 210, No. 108, pl. x.—GMEL. Syst. Nat. p. 262. Nauclerus forficatus, RIDGWAY, P. A. N. S. Phil. Dec. 1870, 144.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 152.—SHAW, Nat. Misc. pl. cciv; Zoöl. VII, 107.—WILS. Am. Orn. pl. li, f. 3, 1808.—AUD. Birds Am. pl. 72, 1831; Orn. Biog. I, 368; V, 371.—BONAP. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 31; Isis, 1832, 1138. Milvus furcatus, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. pl. x, 1807. Elanoides furcatus, GRAY, List B. Brit. Mus. p. 44, 1844.—STRICKL. Orn. Syn. I, 141, 1855.—OWEN, Ibis, II, 1860, 240 (habits). Nauclerus furcatus, VIG. Zoöl. Journ. II, 387; Isis, 1830, p. 1043.—LESS. Man. Orn. I, 101; Tr. Orn. p. 73.—SWAINS. Classif. B. I, 312; II, 210, 1837.—BONAP. List, p. 4; Cat. Ucc. Eur. p. 20; Consp. Av. p. 21.—GOULD, B. Eur. pl. xxx.—AUD. Synop. p. 14, 1839.—RICH. Schomb. Reis. Brit. Guian. p. 735.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, p. 12, pl. vii, f. 15.—GRAY, Gen. B. fol. sp. 1, pl. ix, f. 9; Gen. & Subgen. Brit. Mus. p. 6.—BREW. (WILS.) Synop. Am. Orn. p. 685.—WOODH. Sitgr. Exp. Zuñi & Colorado, p. 60.—KAUP, Monog. Falconidæ, Cont. Orn. 1850, p. 57.—BREWER, Oölogy, I, 1857, 38.—CASS. Birds N. Am. 1858, 36.—COUES, Prod. Orn. Ariz. 1866, p. 12.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 525 (Texas, nesting).—GRAY, Hand List, I, 27, 1869. Elanus furcatus, VIG. Zoöl. Journ. I, 340.—STEPH. Zoöl. XIII, pl. ii, p. 49.—CUV. Règ. An. (ed. 2), I, p. 334.—JAMES. (WILS.) Am. Orn. I, 75.—JARD. (WILS.) Am. Orn. II, 275.—JARD. Orn. Eur. p. 29.—NUTT. Man. p. 94. Accipiter milvus carolinensis, BRISS. Orn. I, 418, 1760. Elanoides yetapa, VIEILL. Enc. Méth. III, 1205, 1823.

SP. CHAR. Adult, male and female. Whole head and neck, lining of wings, broad band across the rump, and entire lower parts, pure white. Interscapulars and lesser wing-coverts, rich, dark, soft, bronzed purplish-black. Rest of upper parts, including lower part of rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail, more metallic slaty-black, feathers somewhat greenish basally, more bluish terminally, with a peculiar, soft milky appearance, and with very smooth compact surface. Tertials almost entirely white, black only at tips. White on under side of wing occupying all the coverts, and the basal half of the secondaries. Wing, 15.40–17.70; tail, 12.50–14.50; tarsus, 1.00–1.30; middle toe, 1.15–1.20.

Younger. Similar, but with the beautiful soft purplish-bronzed black of shoulders and back less conspicuously different from the more metallic tints of other upper parts. Young (youngest? 18,457, Cantonment Burgwyn, New Mexico). The black above less slaty, with a brownish cast, and with a quite decided gloss of bottle-green; secondaries, primary coverts, primaries, and tail-feathers finely margined terminally with white. Feathers of the head and neck with fine shaft-lines of black.

HAB. Whole of South and Middle America, and southern United States; very rarely northward on Atlantic coast to Pennsylvania; along the Mississippi Valley to Minnesota and Wisconsin; breeding in Iowa (Sioux City) and Illinois; exceedingly abundant in August in southern portion of the latter State; Cuba; accidental in England.

Localities: Guatemala (SCL. Ibis. I, 217); Cuba (CAB. Journ. II, lxxxiii); Brazil (CAB. Journ. V, 41); Panama (LAWR. VII, 1861, 289); N. Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 325, common, breeding); Veragua (SALV. 1867, 158); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 134); Minnesota (thirty miles north of Mille Lac, lat. 47°; TRIPPE, Birds of Minn., Pr. Essex Inst. VI, 1871, p. 113).

A pair marked as from England (56,099, ♀, and 56,100, ♂, “in England geschossen”; Schlüter Collection) are smaller than the average of American skins, the female measuring, wing, 15.50; tail, 13.00. The colors of this female, however, are as in American examples. The male has the plumage somewhat different from anything we have seen in the small series of American specimens. The whole upper parts are a polished violaceous slaty-black, this covering the back and lesser wing-coverts, as well as other upper parts. Were a large series of American specimens examined, individuals might perhaps be found corresponding in all respects with the pair in question.

LIST OF SPECIMENS EXAMINED.

National Museum, 9; Philadelphia Academy, 3; New York Museum, 4 (Brazil); Boston Society, 1; Cambridge Museum, 2; Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 3; Coll. R. Ridgway, 1. Total, 23.

HABITS. The Swallow-tailed Hawk has an extended distribution in the eastern portion of North America. It is irregularly distributed; in a large part of the country it occurs only occasionally and in small numbers, and is probably nowhere abundant except in the southwestern Gulf States, or along the rivers and inland waters. On the Atlantic coast it has been traced, according to Mr. Lawrence, as far north as New York City. According to Mr. Nuttall, individuals have been seen on the Mississippi as far as St. Anthony’s Falls, in latitude 44°. It is found more or less common along the tributaries of the Ohio and Mississippi, where it is essentially a prairie bird, and breeds in Southern Wisconsin, in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, and throughout Illinois. It has been taken in Cuba, and occasionally also in Jamaica. It is found in Central America, and in South America to Northern Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and, according to Vieillot, to Peru. It nests in South Carolina and in all the States that border on the Gulf of Mexico, frequenting the banks of rivers, but is not found near the seaboard.

Mr. Thure Kumlien noticed a pair of these Hawks in the neighborhood of Fort Atkinson, Wis., in the summer of 1854, and had no doubt they were breeding, though he was not able to find their nest.

Mr. Osbert Salvin, in a letter from San Geronimo, in the Vera Paz (Ibis, 1860, p. 195), states that he has positive information that this Hawk breeds in the mountains about Coban, his chief collector having found a nest there with young the previous year. Specimens had been before that received by Mr. Sclater, forwarded by Mr. Skinner, from the neighborhood of Cajabon, Guatemala. It was said to be more numerous at Belize.

Mr. Dresser informs us that he was so fortunate as to find this graceful bird very abundant in some parts of Texas, and he had a good opportunity of observing and admiring it in its true home. It was occasional about San Antonio de Bexar, where it was usually seen late in July before heavy rains. Near the Rio Grande or in Texas he did not see it at all. At Peach Creek and near Gonzales he found it not unfrequent; and on the Colorado, Brazos, and Trinity Rivers it was one of the most common birds. It only remains there during the summer months, arriving early in April, and breeding later than the other birds of prey. On the 26th of May he found them very abundant on a creek near the Colorado, but none had commenced breeding. They were preparing their nests; and, from the number he saw about one large grove, he judged that they breed in society. On his wounding one of them, the rest came flying over his head in the manner of Seagulls, uttering harsh cries; and he counted forty or fifty over him at one time. He was informed that these Kites build high up in oak, sycamore, or cottonwood trees, sometimes quite far from the creeks.

Mr. Dresser describes this bird as exhibiting a singularly pleasing appearance on the wing, gliding in large circles, without apparent effort, in very rapid flight. The tail is widely spread, and when sailing in circles the wings are almost motionless. One was noticed as it was hunting after grasshoppers. It went over the ground as carefully as a well-trained pointer, every now and then stooping to pick up a grasshopper, the feet and bill seeming to touch the insect simultaneously. They were very fond of wasp grubs, and would carry a nest to a high perch, hold it in one claw, and sit there picking out the grubs. Their stomachs were found to contain beetles and grasshoppers.

Dr. Woodhouse speaks of this Hawk as common in Texas, and also in the country of the Creek and Cherokee nations. He confirms the accounts which have been received of its fondness for the neighborhood of streams, and adds that along the Arkansas and its tributaries it was very abundant.

Mr. Ridgway states that this Hawk arrives in Richland County, Ill., in May, and lives during the summer on the small prairies, feeding there upon small snakes, particularly the little green snake (Leptophis æstivus) and the different species of Eutænia. It builds its nest there among the oak or hickory trees which border the streams intersecting the prairies. Towards the latter part of summer it becomes very abundant on the prairies, being attracted by the abundance of food, which at that season consists very largely of insects, especially Neuroptera. It is most abundant in August, and in bright weather dozens of them may be seen at a time sailing round in pursuit of insects.

Mr. Audubon speaks of the movements of this bird in flight as astonishingly rapid, the deep curves they describe, their sudden doublings and crossings, and the extreme ease with which they seem to cleave the air, never failing to excite admiration. In the States of Louisiana and Mississippi, where, he adds, these birds are very abundant, they arrive in large companies in the beginning of April, and utter a sharp and plaintive note. They all come from the westward; and he has counted upwards of a hundred, in the space of an hour, passing over him in an easterly direction. They feed on the wing, and their principal food is said to be grasshoppers, caterpillars, small snakes, lizards, and frogs. They sweep over the fields, and seem to alight for a moment to secure a snake or some other object. They also frequent the creeks, to pick up water-snakes basking on the floating logs.

On the ground their movements are said to be awkward in the extreme. When wounded, they rarely strike with their talons, or offer serious resistance. They never attack other birds or quadrupeds to prey upon them.