from the Colony of Natal. 41 



own remarks being, as before, distinguished from those of Mr. 

 Ay res by brackets and initials. 



284. Erythropus amurensis (Radde) ; Falco vespertinus, 

 var. amurensis, Radde, Reis. Sib. ii. p. 102, tab. i. fig. 2 ; 

 Ibis, 18G6, p. 119. Eastern Red-footed Hobby. (Plate II.) 



Iris hazel ; eyelids and bare skin orange ; bill dark orange, 

 black at the tip ; tarsi and feet dark orange. 



Numbers of these pretty Falcons may be seen during the 

 summer months about the open downs in the neighbourhood of 

 Maritzburg, but are not (so far as I know) found there in 

 winter. They hunt in company, sometimes as many as twenty 

 together, well scanning the ground for grasshoppers and other 

 insects, of which their food seems almost entirely to consist. They 

 do not generally remain long on the wing, alighting on any low 

 plant, ant-heap, or on the level ground, in twos and threes. 

 Tliey are not particularly shy ; one may get within fifty yards 

 of them without much difficulty. They seem to prefer marshy 

 ground to hunt over. 



[The very curious cii:cumstance of the occurrence in South- 

 eastern Africa of this species, which had previously been known 

 only as an inhabitant of Amuria and of Northern China, has 

 been already mentioned in * The Ibis ' {loc. cit.), where a brief 

 reference to the specimens sent from Natal by Mr. Ayres was 

 made. 



These specimens were three in number, two males and one 

 female, — all, I believe, adult. I have also received from my 

 friend Mr. Andersson an adult male obtained at the Knysua, on 

 the south-eastern coast of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 and I have had the opportunity of examining a female specimen 

 in the British Museum, procured in South Africa by Mr. Charles 

 Livingstone, and believed to have been obtained near the River 

 Shire. 



The examples from South-east Africa appear to me to be spe- 

 cifically identical with specimens of both sexes in the Norwich 

 Museum obtained in Northern China, consisting of a male and 

 female from Yoon Ying, near Pckin, and of two males from the 

 neighbourhood of Talien Bay. 



