14S British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



Famity—FAL CONID^. 



Red-Footed Falcon. 



Falco vcspoiuiKs, Linn. 



THIS little Falcon, somewhat less in size than the Hobby, is remarkable for a 

 conspicuous difference in the plumage of the two sexes, and is only a rare 

 accidental visitor in the summer to this country from the far South East, some 

 thirty instances of its occurrence having been recorded. The British Isles lie so 

 far to the west of its habitat that few ornithologists are likely to meet with it 

 unless the}- seek it in those countries it commonly visits, and in a long experience 

 the writer has never had the opportunity of examining a " British " specimen in 

 the flesh. Of the thirty instances recorded the Eastern Counties have had the 

 largest share, but Cornwall, Devon, and Pembrokeshire have also contributed ; in 

 Scotland a single example has been obtained in Aberdeenshire, and one in Ireland. 

 One of two shot in Cornwall is said to have been obtained in February, while one 

 is stated to have been killed at Fordingbridge, in Hants., in January. The 

 appearance of these birds in this country in the winter is so difficult to account 

 for — all the members of the species should be then wintering either in Damaraland 

 in S. Africa, or in India, that it is to be presumed young birds of the common 

 Hobby have been mistaken for it. 



The head quarters of the Red-footed Falcon in Europe are in Hungary and 

 South East Russia, where it arrives in the spring. In Asia it ranges through 

 South West Siberia, and in this part of the world there is also a closely allied 

 species, Falco avmranis. It is almost exclusively insectivorous, and is gregarious, 

 large numbers may be seen wheeling in the air at dusk,* like Swifts, capturing 

 night-flying moths. The flocks, both in spring and autumn, perform singular 

 aerial dances, something after the manner of house-flies ; as Dresser writes " fixing 

 an imaginary point in the air, they will fly straight towards it, then return, and 

 follow continually nearly the same route, never passing certain limits in their 

 flight to and fro." They roost at night as close together as they can, generally 

 on the bare branches of a pine. They also breed in colonies, five or six nests 

 being often met with in the same tree, the old nests of Rooks, Crows, or Magpies 



* Hence its specific name vcspertinus. 



