42 BRITISH BIRDS. 



FALCO VESPERTINUS. 

 RED-FOOTED FALCON. 



(PLATE 4.) 



Falco vespertinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 129 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimomm 



Macgillivray, Strickland, Sclilegel, Blasius, Newton, (Sharpe), (Gould), &c. 

 Falco rufus, Scop. Del. Faun, et Flor. Insubr. ii. p. 36, pi. xix. (1786). 

 Falco rufipes, BeseJte, Vog. Kurl. p. 20, t. 3, 4 (1792). 

 Falco erythrourus, Rajin. Carratt. Nuovi Gen. Ac. p. 5 (1810). 

 Cerchneis vespertinus (Linn.}, Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 314. 

 Pannychistes rufipes (Beseke), Kaup, NaiiirL Si/st. p. 87 (1829). 

 Erythropus vespertinus (Linn.}, Brchm, Isis, 1.^30, p. 796. 

 Falco rubripes, Less. Traite, p. 93 (1831). 



Tinnunculus rufipes (Beseke), Kaup, Classif. Siiuy. u. Vog. p. 108 (1844). 

 Tinnunculus vespertinus (Linn.), Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 21 (1844). 



The Red-footed Falcon is an accidental visitor to the British Islands, 

 from twenty to thirty specimens having been recorded at various times, 

 one or more in Scotland, and one in Ireland. On the continent of Europe 

 it is also an accidental visitor to Spain, France, and Scandinavia. Its 

 breeding-quarters are Hungary, the whole of Russia south of lat. 65, and 

 South-western Siberia as far east as Krasnoyarsk. Lindermeyer's state- 

 ment that it breeds in Greece, and Loche's assertion that it breeds in 

 Algeria, are neither of them verified by subsequent travellers in those 

 countries, and are probably erroneous. It passes through Germany, Italy, 

 Turkey and Greece, Asia Minor, Persia and Turkestan on migration, and 

 winters in Damara Land, and occasionally in North-east Africa. In 

 Siberia from Lake Baikal eastwards this species is represented by F. 

 amurensis, the males of which have the under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 white instead of slate-grey. This species breeds as far south as Eastern 

 Mongolia and North China, and winters in India and South-east Africa. 

 This is one of the most curious cases of migration and geographical 

 distribution known. That the Red-footed Falcon, ranging during the 

 breeding-season from the valley of the Dvina to the valley of the Yenesay, 

 should winter in Africa is not an unprecedented fact. The Willow- Warblers 

 and Sedge- Warblers, which breed in the last-mentioned valley east of Cal- 

 cutta, apparently do the same. One can easily imagine that two such 

 very common birds have been obliged to widen their breeding-range, and 

 to extend it eastwards by degrees as they increased in numbers; and one 

 can also understand that they would naturally retain their old winter- 

 quarters until a " Zugstrasse " or route of migration would gradually be 

 formed from Central Siberia to Africa. This line of migration probably 



