FALCONIDJ3 TINNUNCULUS 285 



esting range; it spends the northern summer in Amoorland, Japan, 

 and North China, where it nests. Leaving the neighbourhood of 

 Pekin in September, it passes through India, where it has been 

 regularly observed in Cachar in October and November. It spends 

 our southern summer, from October to March, in South Africa, 

 where it is found in the upper part of Natal, the Transvaal, and 

 Ehodesia. Hitherto curiously enough it does not seem to have 

 been met with in east Africa. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony Knysna 

 (Andersson), King Williams Town (S. A. Mus.) ; Natal Near Maritz- 

 burg, common in summer (Ayres) ; Transvaal Potchefstroom, 

 December, January (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland Boatlanami, December 

 (Ayres) ; Ehodesia between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, De- 

 cember (Oates), near Salisbury (Marshall) ; German south-west 

 Africa Bare in Damaraland (Andersson) ; Portuguese east Africa 

 Zambesi valley (Kirk). 



Habits. Like its western relative the Eastern Eed-legged 

 Falcon is a gregarious bird, hunting in companies of twenty to 

 several hundred, and scouring the ground for insects which form 

 its food exclusively. Marshall found in the stomach of one 

 examined, eighteen Pentatomid bugs, six water beetles, one grass- 

 hopper, two winged Carabara ants, and a number of winged termites. 

 They are fond of the neighbourhood of streams and are usually 

 seen in the evening. 



Mr. Seebohm observed a flock of perhaps 300 of these Falcons in 

 the early part of March on a farm in the upper part of Natal. 

 They spent the day hawking like Swallows at a great height in the 

 air, and at night roosted all together on the naked branches of some 

 tall trees in the bush. 



It is not probable that either this or the previous species will be 

 found breeding in South Africa. 



/ /2u- 



^y'a^/^o 



513. Tinnunculus dickinsoni. Dickinson's Kestrel. 



Falco (Dissodectes) dickinsoni, P. L. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 249 ; 



///. Ibis, 1864, p. 305, pi. 8 ; Kirk, ibid. p. 316 ; Holnb #* Pelzeln, 



Om. Siid-Afr. p. 28 (1882) ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 434 [Tete.] 

 Cerchneis dickersoni, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 447 (1874); id. ed. 



LU<n-<rs B. S. Afr. pp 68, 801 (1875-84); Beiclienow, Vog. Afr. i, 



p. 637 (1901). 



Dissodectes dickinsoni, (ittrnci/, Ibis, 1881, p. 277. 

 Ki-vthropus dickinsoni, Shelley B. Afr. i, p. 145 (1896). 



