'15 



EED-FOOTED FALCON. 



FALCO VESPERTINUS, Linn. 



Falco vespertinus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 129 (1766) ; Macg. iii. 



p. 313; Heivitson, i. p. 28; Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 69; 



Dresser, vi. p. 93. 

 Falco rufipes, Naum. i. p. 311. 



Faucon Kobez, French; Rothfuss-Falke, German. 



This very beautiful little Falcon is an irregular and 

 uncommon visitor to the British Islands, in all proba- 

 bility for the good reason that these Islands lie far to 

 the westward of its breeding-haunts and its accustomed 

 routes of migration. To the Ionian Islands, where I 

 first made the acquaintance of this species, it is a 

 regular and, in some years, a very abundant vernal 

 visitor ; but, so so far as I was able to ascertain, in 

 Corfu it only remains for a few days. I once fell in 

 with a small flock of Red-footed Falcons on the shores 

 of the Lake of Geneva in May 1851 ; I saw one on 

 wing in Andalucia in the early summer of 1884, and 

 found it in considerable numbers on one occasion only 

 in Cyprus, near Limasol, on May 6th, 1875. 



This bird is eminently gregarious in habits, and in 



