Birds of America
By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.
VOLUME I.
GENUS I.--MILVULUS, Swains. SWALLOW-TAIL.
Bill moderate, rather stout, straight, broad at the base, gradually
compressed toward the end; upper mandible with the dorsal outline a little
convex, the edges sharp and nearly perpendicular, with a very small notch close
to the small deflected tip; lower mandible with the ridge very broad at the
base, the sides rounded, the tip minute and ascending. Nostrils basal, broadly
elliptical. Head rather large, depressed; neck short; body rather slender.
Feet rather short; tarsus short, slender, compressed, with very broad scutella,
some of which almost meet behind; toes free, the hind toe not proportionally
larger, all scutellate above; claws of moderate size, arched, compressed, acute.
Plumage soft and blended. Wings long, second quill longest, first almost as
long as third, the three outer abruptly notched near the attenuated tip. Tail
extremely elongated and forked, the middle feathers being of ordinary length,
the lateral longest.