RED-FOOTED FALCON. 



45 



that BufFon described and figured the adult male as a sin- 

 gular variety of that bird. The young female has more the 

 appearance of a young Merlin. Four examples of this Fal- 

 con were killed in the county of Norfolk in 1830, three of 

 which were shot by Mr. Heath at Horning ; and since that 

 period several others have occurred in different parts of Eng- 

 land, and one in Ireland. Of its mode of nesting, or of its 

 eggs, but little appears to be known. M. Vieillot, in the 

 Faune Francaise, says that it builds in the holloAvs of trees, 

 or takes to the nest of the Magpie, and that it flies and 

 hawks for its prey only in the evening. Its food is ascer- 

 tained to be small birds and large coleopterous insects, the 

 more indigestible parts of which have been found in the 

 stomach. 



The Red-footed Falcon is a native of Russia, Poland, and 

 Austria, from whence it passes southward in Europe to Pro- 

 vence and Tuscany. It has even a still more considerable 

 southern range, as the Zoological Society have received one 

 from Keith E. Abbott, Esq. which was shot at Trebizond. 



Since my notice of the four specimens killed in Norfolk in 

 1830, which I believe is the first record of the occurrence of 

 this species in England, a fifth example has been shot in the 

 same county in 1832. Two specimens have been obtained 

 in Yorkshire, and one in the county of Durham. An adult 

 female specimen lived two years in the menagerie of the Zoo- 

 logical Society. A specimen is preserved in a museum at 

 Devonport, Avhich was obtained not far off; and Mr. Thomp- 

 son of Belfast has recorded a notice of one that was killed 

 in the county of Wicklow in the summer of 1832. 



This recent addition to our catalogue of British Birds 

 goes through several interesting changes of plumage ; and as 

 the species is somewhat new to us, these different appearances 

 are here described in detail. 



