94 



Another young male (no. 4) is dark grey on the back, rather paler on the scapulars with fulvous or rufous 

 edgings, the feathers being banded alternately with grey and fulvous on the lower portion of the back 

 and rump and on some of the scapulars, these latter being conspicuously tipped with rufous ; wing- 

 coverts grey, edged with fulvous like the back ; quills very dark grey, the secondaries edged and tipped 

 with white ; the innermost secondaries barred alternately with grey and fulvous ; all the inner web of 

 the quills barred with white ; tail-feathers for the most part reddish, tinged on the upper surface, with 

 clear grey, banded with black ; head very pale ; forehead pure white ; crown of the head rufescent, with 

 longitudinal brown markings ; nape somewhat varied with white ; feathers in front of and round the 

 eye black ; cheeks white ; ear-coverts brownish ; throat and sides of the neck white ; breast whitish, 

 slightly tinged with fulvous, longitudinally streaked with dark brown, these stripes becoming narrower 

 on the abdomen ; vent and lower abdomen fulvescent, the thighs being especially strongly tinged with 

 rufous ; bill pale bluish horn-colour, the under mandible yellowish, the upper mandible also strongly 

 tinged with yellow. 



A young female (no. 5) has the throat much whiter and the under parts much lighter than in the adult 

 female ; the forehead is hoary, and the head slightly striated with dark brown. 



Another, younger bird (no. 6), marked as female, but which appears to us to be a young male, differs from 

 the last-mentioned bird in having the feathers of the breast mesially striped with dark brown, and the 

 feathers of the crown very distinctly marked with longtudinal lines of dark brown. 



The nestling (no. 7) is entirely covered with short, close, white down ; and the colouring of the soft parts 

 appears very pale. 



Until recently it was supposed that this Falcon was spread all over the eastern portion of the 

 Palsearctic Region ; but Radde in 1863 showed that it was really another species which represents 

 our Red-legged Falcon in that quarter of the globe : this eastern representative, which he called 

 Falco erythropus, var. amurensis, is distinguished in the adult male by having the under wing- 

 coverts white instead of dark plumbeous, the female and young bird also being different, and 

 resembling more the Hobbies in plumage. Shortly afterwards Mr. Gurney received F. amurensis 

 from Natal ; and in ' The Ibis' for 1868 (p. 42) a Plate of the species is given, and many inter- 

 esting details recorded respecting it. The occurrence of both species in Africa naturally raises 

 the question as to where their ranges coalesce ; and uncertainty on this point still remains in some 

 instances. It is, however, tolerably certain that F. amurensis is a more eastern bird, breeding in 

 China, where Swinhoe obtained it ; and it is, moreover, the one which occurs in India. In South 

 Africa both species have been observed ; but even here F. amurensis still seems to preserve its 

 eastern range, having only occurred once in Damaraland, where its place is taken by F. vesper- 

 tinus. On the other hand, F. amurensis goes further south than the last-named bird, as it has 

 been sent by Andersson from the Knysna. 



The Red-legged Falcon does not often visit the British Islands. Yarrell cites four instances 

 of its occurrence in Norfolk in 1830, two in Yorkshire, and one in Durham, as also one in the 

 Devonport Museum ; and Stevenson tells us of one instance of its capture in Suffolk, in July 1862. 

 Besides these, we know of one other example being shot by our friend Mr. Howard Saunders at 

 Rottingdean in 1851. Thompson knew of only one specimen having been killed in Ireland, in the 

 summer of 1832. 



