Plate CXVII. Male and Female.
Head, secondary quills, and lower parts light ash-grey; back and wing
coverts dark leaden-grey; primaries black, margined externally with
deep red; tail bluish-black; scutella dark purplish-red.
_Male_, 14, 36. _Female_, 15.
From Texas, where it is abundant, to North Carolina; up the
Mississippi to Natchez. Migratory.
Mississippi Kite, Falco Mississippiensis, Wils. Amer. Orn. v.
iii. p. 80.
Falco plumbeus, Bonap. Syn. p. 90.
Mississippi Kite, Falco plumbeus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. ii. p.
108, v. v. p. 374.
GENUS VIII. NAUCLERUS, Vig. SWALLOW-TAILED-HAWK.
Bill short, wide at the base, much compressed toward the end; upper
mandible with the dorsal line decurved from the base, the sides
slightly convex, the edges with a slight festoon, the tip narrow and
acute; lower mandible with the angle very wide, the dorsal line
straightish, the tip rounded and declinate. Nostrils round, with a
central papilla. Head rather large, roundish, flattened; neck short;
body compact. Feet short; tarsus very short, thick, scaly all round;
toes scutellate above, scabrous beneath, with pointed papillæ; claws
rather long, curved, acuminate. Plumage blended, glossy. Wings
extremely long, pointed, the third quill longest; secondaries short.
Tail extremely long, very deeply forked.