Volume 20, Plate XV / Ornithology (Birds)

Swallow-Tailed Nauclerus

Nauclerus furcatus

Known in Britain only by two captured specimens, one near Ballachulish and one taken alive in Yorkshire in 1805, this graceful bird is a native of the southern United States and Mexico, migrating southward and never seen east of Pennsylvania. Of slender form with an elongated forked tail, it feeds on snakes, lizards, caterpillars, and large insects seized in the air; its plumage shows a rich contrast of pure white and deep glossy blackish green.