176 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



of prey precipitate themselves vertically downward, and are at once 

 lost to sight. 



The homes of this small Falcon extend through the whole of 

 Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, Turkestan, and as far 

 to the East as India. 



11. Red-legged Falcon [ROTHFUSS-FALKE], 

 FALCO RUFIPES, Beseke. 1 



Heligolandish : Road-futted falk = Red-footed Falcon. 



Falco mfipes. Naumann, i. 311. 



Bed-legged Falcon. Dresser, vi. 93. 



Faucon Kobez. Temminck, Manuel, i. 23, iii. 17. 



Records of the occurrence in Heligoland, either of living birds 

 or freshly killed examples of this beautiful Falcon, with the talons 

 and skin round the eyes still displaying their bright red colouring, 

 are much rarer than one might expect. So far as my experience 

 goes it has only been shot five times, and seen on one other occa- 

 sion. The earliest of these occurrences dates back to May 1840. 

 The bird in question was a male, appearing in its first full adult 

 plumage. It came originally into the possession of Reyiners, who 

 stuffed it, and from whom I bought it afterwards. The bird is 

 in my collection. Its general plumage is blue-grey, but the shafts 

 of the feathers of the lower parts are still marked by black streaks, 

 and the upper breast has some scattered rust-coloured feathers 

 remaining. The flight-feathers retain large white transverse spots 

 on their inner webs, and the tail still displays a broad black ter- 

 minal band. 



Later on, Oelrich Aeuckens the eldest of the three brothers, 

 generally known as ' Old Oelk ' obtained two of these birds, first a 

 male and afterwards a female. A fourth example, a beautiful old 

 male in perfect plumage, was shot by my eldest son on the 20th of 

 May 1868, and is also in my collection. On the 3rd of June 1887, 

 Jan Aeuckens shot a one-year-old male, in which, however, the 

 adult plumage is still in an incipient, imperfectly developed stage. 

 On the 13th of the same month Glaus Aeuckens again saw a Red- 

 legged Falcon flying about among the houses on the Highland ; he 

 was, however, unable to shoot it under these conditions, and the 

 bird was not seen again afterwards. 



The migratory movements of this species are as yet not ascer- 

 tained with precision. In general, and so far as applies to the 

 preponderating number of individuals, their line of migration is one 

 trending from north to south. 



1 Falco vespertinus, Linn. 



