192 FALCO VESPERTINUS. 



other hawk, but which is wanting in the figure of the 

 male. The adult male seems to have been first de- 

 scribed and figured by Buffon, who considered it as a 

 variety of the hobby, having " the throat, the lower 

 part of the neck, the breast, a part of the belly and the 

 large feathers of the wings, grey and without spots." 

 He further mentions, that this bird and the hobby agree 

 in having " the lower part of the belly and the thighs 

 furnished with feathers of a bright red." 



In the form of its claws, this species diflfers more 

 from the peregrine and gyr falcons than the buzzard 

 from the golden eagle. These organs are in it com- 

 paratively weak, less curved than in any other British 

 falcon, and with the inner edge of the middle toe much 

 more dilated. It is astonishing that these circumstances 

 have not induced some sapient reformer to make a new 

 genus of it, and thus lay claim to the honour of ap- 

 pending a " 7nihV' to the altered name. 



Falco vespertinus. Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 129. 

 Falco vespertinus. Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 46. 

 Faucon a pieds rouges ou Kobez. Falco rufipes. Temm. Man. 



d'' Ornith. p. 33. 

 Orange-legged Hobby. Falco rufipes. Selby., Illustr. vol. i. p. 45. 



