70 FALCONIOE. 



adult male as a singular variety of that bird. The young 

 female has more the appearance of a young Merlin. About 

 twenty examples have been recorded of its occurrence in the 

 British Islands since the year 1830, when four were killed in 

 Norfolk (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 116). The majority of spe- 

 cimens have been obtained in the eastern or southern coun- 

 ties, as in that already named, Suffolk, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, 

 Devon and Cornwall; but it has also been met with in 

 Berkshire, Shropshire, Yorkshire, Durham and Northumber- 

 land. In Scotland two have been killed near Aberdeen, and 

 in Ireland a single example in the county of Wicklow. 



The geographical distribution of this species, so far as it 

 can be determined at present, has been elaborately traced by 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser in their beautiful ' Birds of 

 Europe,' and much information respecting its habits has 

 also been compiled from various sources by those industrious 

 authors. The Red-footed Falcon has been obtained some 

 five times in Sweden. In Finland, where it had been pre- 

 viously known in a very few instances, it was, according to 

 Dr. Malmgren, several times observed in the summer of 

 1869 ; and three examples were killed so far to the north as 

 lat. 65. It is common in the neighbourhood of Archangel, 

 and eastward it ranges as far as the plains of Tunkinsk in 

 Western Siberia, which appears to be its limit ; since the 

 bird, formerly confounded with this species, and found in 

 Amoorland, China and India, is distinct, the Falco amu- 

 rensis, the adult male of which possesses white, instead of 

 lead-coloured under wing-coverts, while the female and young 

 resemble more the common Hobby. Falco vespertinus has 

 been shot at Trebizond, and Canon Tristram mentions it as 

 a scarce summer-visitant in Palestine. It passes through 

 Egypt in autumn and less frequently in spring ; it may pos- 

 sibly occur further to the southward in Eastern Africa, but 

 there F. amurensis reappears and extends to Natal. In 

 Damaraland this last has been only known to occur once, 

 while F. vespertinus, according to the late Mr. C. J. 

 Andersson, arrives there during the wet season in incredible 

 numbers ; and further to the north, in Benguela, a large 



