50 FALCONIDA. 
Buffon described and figured the adult male as a singular 
variety of that bird. The young female has more the 
appearance of a young Merlin. One specimen caught in 
Berkshire is recorded by F. Holme, Esq. of Christ Church 
College, Oxford, and a second by the Rev. N. C. Strick- 
land, obtained in Yorkshire. Four examples of this Fal- 
con were killed in the county of Norfolk in 1830, three of 
which were shot by Mr. Heath at Horning; and since 
that period several others have occurred in different 
parts of England, and one in Ireland. M. Vieillot, 
in the Faune Francaise, says that it builds in the hollows 
of trees, or takes to the nest of the Magpie, and that it 
flies and hawks for its prey only in the evening. It has 
lately been stated to breed on the Pyrenees, and to lay 
four eggs; a drawing of an egg sent me resembles that of 
the Merlin in form and colour, but is a little smaller in size. 
Its food is ascertained to be small birds and large coleop- 
terous insects, the more indigestible parts of which have 
been found in the stomach. 
The Red-footed Falcon is a native of Russia, Poland, 
and Austria, from whence it passes southward in Europe 
to Provence, Tuscany, Corfu, Sicily, Malta, and Crete ; 
it has also been shot at Trebizond, and in India. 
Since my notice of the four specimens killed in Norfolk 
in 1850, other examples have been shot in the same county 
in 1832, and 1843. Two specimens have been obtained 
in Yorkshire, and one in the county of Durham. An 
adult female specimen lived two years in the menagerie 
of the Zoological Society. A specimen is preserved in a 
museum at. Devonport, which was obtained not far off ; 
and Mr. Thompson of Belfast has recorded a notice of 
one that was killed in the county of Wicklow in the 
summer of 1832. 
This recent addition to our catalogue of British Birds 
