RED-FOOTED FALCON. 43 
runs from east to west in Siberia, as the birds would not be likely to 
deviate east of their usual route until they had arrived at their breeding- 
grounds and found them too crowded. The fact that the winter-quarters 
of the eastern representative of the Red-footed Falcon are partly in India 
and partly in the Transvaal is much more difficult to understand ; and I 
am unable to suggest any explanation of the anomaly. 
The Red-footed Falcon is a bird of easy though not very rapid flight. 
It sails and hovers for a moment like a Hobby, but lacks the dash 
necessary to catch birds on the wing. Its food is chiefly insects. Some 
of these, such as beetles and ants, it obtains on the ground; but most of 
its food is captured in the air. It is avery gregarious bird; and flocks may 
be seen hawking backwards and forwards with great regularity, turning 
sharp round at the end of their beat. This is principally observed towards 
evening, when night-flying moths are on the wing. In the daytime they 
catch grasshoppers and dragonflies. They are rarely if ever found in the 
forest, but are very partial to swampy ground thinly scattered over with 
trees, which afford them convenient perching-places in the midst of their 
insect prey. Nordmann mentions their great abundance in the botanical 
gardens at Odessa ; and they are equally common in the gardens of the 
club at Krasnoyarsk, the limit, so far as is known, of their eastern range. 
At night they roost as close together as they can, choosing, if possible, the 
bare branches of a pine. They also breed in colonies, occasionally five or 
six nests being in one tree. It is said that they rarely if ever build a nest, 
but appropriate old nests of Crows or Magpies, or especially of Rooks. 
Cochrane says that in Hungary they arrive in the middle of April and 
breed early in May. Goebel says that in South Russia their usual breed- 
ing-time is early in June, and that they take possession of the nests of the 
Rooks after they have done with them, but that they frequently breed in 
solitary pairs, especially in gardens, in old Magpies’ and Crows’ nests. He 
adds that sometimes they breed earlier, for he once took a nest on the 
13th of June with six young, which had been amply provided by their 
parents with field-mice, stagbeetles, and a green lizard. The number of 
eggs varies from four to six. In shape, size, and colour the eggs of the 
Red-footed Falcon approach very near to those of the Kestrel. As the 
result of a careful comparison of 147 eggs of the former with 289 of the 
latter, Goebel arrives at the following conclusions :—The eggs of the Kestrel 
are coarser-grained, have much more lustre, and are, on an average, larger, 
and not only absolutely but proportionally heavier. The colour of the 
Kestrel’s eggs is a darker, browner red compared with the yellower red 
of the eggs of the Red-footed Falcon. The eggs of the latter vary in 
length from 1-6 to 1:25 inch, and in breadth from 1°2 to Linch. | 
The adult male Red-footed Falcon has the whole plumage dark slate- 
grey, shading into silvery grey on the wings, and into black on the tail, 
