_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.