RED-FOOTED FALCON. 43 



runs from east to west in Siberia^ as the birds would not be likely to 

 deviate east of their usual route until they had arrived at their breeding- 

 grounds and found them too crowded. The fact that the winter-quarters 

 of the eastern representative of the Red-footed Falcon are partly in India 

 and partly in the Transvaal is much more diflicult to understand ; and I 

 am unable to suggest any explanation of the anomaly. 



The Red-footed Falcon is a bird of easy though not very rapid flight. 

 It sails and hovers for a moment like a Hobbyj but lacks the dash 

 necessary to catch birds on the wing. Its food is chiefly insects. Some 

 of these, such as beetles and ants, it obtains on the ground ; but most of 

 its food is captured in the air. It is a very gregarious bird ; and flocks may 

 be seen hawking backwards and forwards with great regularity, turning 

 sharp round at the end of their beat. This is principally observed towards 

 evening, when night-flying moths are on the wing. In the daytime they 

 catch grasshoppers and dragonflies. They are rarely if ever found in the 

 forest, but are very partial to swampy ground thinly scattered over with 

 trees, which afford them convenient perching-places in the midst of their 

 insect prey. Nordmann mentions their great abundance in the botanical 

 gardens at Odessa ; and they are equally common in the gardens of the 

 club at Krasnoyarsk, the limit, so far as is known, of their eastern range. 

 At night they roost as close together as they can, choosing, if possible, the 

 bare branches of a pine. They also breed in colonies, occasionally five or 

 six nests being in one tree. It is said that they rarely if ever build a nest, 

 but appropriate old nests of Crows or Magpies, or especially of Rooks. 

 Cochrane says that in Hungary they arrive in the middle of April and 

 breed early in May. Goebel says that in South Russia their usual breed- 

 ing-time is early in June, and that they take possession of the nests of the 

 Rooks after they have done with them, but that they frequently breed in 

 solitary pairs, especially in gardens, in old Magpies' and Crows' nests. He 

 adds that sometimes they breed earlier, for he once took a nest on the 

 13th of June with six young, which had been amply provided by their 

 parents with field-mice, stagbeetles, and a green lizard. The number of 

 eggs varies from four to six. In shape, size, and colour the eggs of the 

 Red-footed Falcon approach very near to those of the Kestrel. As the 

 result of a careful comparison of 147 eggs of the former with 289 of the 

 latter, Goebel arrives at the following conclusions : — The eggs of the Kestrel 

 are coarser-grained, have much more lustre, and are, on an average, larger, 

 and not only absolutely but proportionally heavier. The colour of the 

 Kestrel's eggs is a darker, browner red compared with the yellower red 

 of the eggs of the Red-footed Falcon. The eggs of the latter vary in 

 length from r6 to 1' 25 inch, and in breadth from 1'2 to 1 inch. 



The adult male Red-footed Falcon has the whole plumage dark slate- 

 grey, shading into silvery grey on the wings, and into black on the tail. 



