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Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813. / American ornithology; or The natural history of the birds of the United States
(1828)

Species 11. Falco furcatus. Swallow-tailed hawk,   pp. [95]-97


Page [95]


SPECIES 11. FdLCO FURCaTUS.y
             SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK.
                   [Plate LI.-Fig. 2.]
LINN. SYSt. I 29.-LATH. I, 60..-Hiruntlo maxima Peruviana
  atis prcedatoris calcaribus instructa, FEuILLEE, Voy. Peru,
  torn, ii, S3.-CATESB. i, 4.-Le XMilan de la Caroline, BiRISS. i,
  418.-BUFF. I, 221.-TURr. Sqst. 149.- rct. Zool. p. 210,
  .No. 108.-PEALE'S Museum, ANO. 142.
  THIS very elegant species inhabits the southern districts of
the United States in summer; is seldom seen as far north as
Pennsylvania, but is very abundant in South Carolina and
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 Ci-
cada, or locust, swarmed among the woods, making a deafen-
ing noise, and I could perceive these Hawks frequently snatch-
ing 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 Swal-
low-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
  * F. foficatwus, LPNN. S1st. X, p. 89, Sp. i, ed. 10.-LA-iH. Ind. Orn.p.
22, SMo.
41.,V11vuIs~furcatus, VIEILL.OT, Ois. de 1,Im. Sept. tvl. 1, p. 38,pt. 10.


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