424 



but, so far as is known, only in the cold season. This Hobby is 

 believed to occur occasionally in Oude, and it has been shot near 

 Calcutta. It is recorded from Assam, Cachar, and Manipur, but 

 has not been obtained in Burma recently, though Blyth quotes it 

 from Tenasserim, which it must inhabit, as it occurs throughout 

 the Malay Archipelago to New Guinea and New Britain. 



Habits, <SfC. Like other Hobbies, the present species is crepus- 

 cular, a circumstance which probably accounts for its being so 

 seldom seen; it also resembles the Common Hobby in feeding 

 largely, perhaps chiefly, on insects. The nidification is unknown. 

 According to Jerdon this Hobby is said to breed on trees, and 

 Mr. R. Thompson inferred that a female he saw in the lower 

 ranges of Kumaun had young in June, because he saw her carry 

 away a small bird as if to her nest. 



Blyth has called attention to the curious fact that this Falcon 

 and the Shahin, both resident tropical species, differ from the 

 migratory Hobby and Peregrine in precisely similar details of 

 coloration, and that some Swallows, resident in the tropics, are 

 similarly distinguished from their migratory allies by darker and 

 more rufous colouring. 



Genus ERYTHROPUS, Brehm, 1828. 



The two beautiful Falcons belonging to the present genus are 

 commonly classed with the Kestrels, from which, however, they 

 differ completely in plumage and considerably in structure. The 

 male when adult is almost throughout dark grey, whilst the female 

 is coloured like a Hobby, not at all like a Kestrel. 



The wing is pointed, 2nd quill longest, 1st much exceeding the 

 3rd, as in Peregrines ; foot small, but proportionally longer than 

 in Kestrels, the mid-toe being but little shorter than the tarsus ; 

 tail rounded, not graduated as in Tinnunculus. 



Only two species are known, one of which occurs in India. 



1262. Erythropus amurensis. Tlie Eastern Red-legged Falcon. 



Tinnunculus vespertinus, apud Blyth, Cat. i, p. 16 ; nee Falco vesper- 

 tinus, L. 



Erythropus vespertinus, apudHorsf. fy M. Cat. i, p. 14 ; Jerdon, B. I. 

 i, p. 40; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 238; Stoliczka, J.A.S.B. xxxvii, 

 pt. 2, p. 13 ; Hume, Rough Notes, p. 106 ; Jerdon, Ibis, 1871, 

 p. 243 ; Legge, 8. F. i, p. 487 ; Hume, S. F. iii, p. 22 ; Sharpe, ibid. 

 t>. 303 ; Hume, Cat. no. 19. 



Falco vespertinus, var. amurensis, Radde, Reis. Si'id. O.-Sibir. ii, 

 p. 102, pi. 1. %. 2 (1863). 



Erythropus amurensis, Gurney, Ibis, 1868, p. 41, pl.ii : 1882, p. 147 ; 

 Hume, S. F. ii, p. 527 ; iii, p. 327 ; Hume $ Inglis,' S. F. v, p. 6. 



Cerchneis amurensis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 445 ; Legge, S. F. iii, 

 p. 362 ; Hume, Cat. no. 19 his ; Legge, Birds Ceyl p. 119 ; Inglis, 

 S. F. ix, p. 243 ; Butler, ibid. p. 371 ; Hume, S. f. xi, p. 5. 



