ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY. • 345 



with this species, and the short wings of this certainly render it equally 

 improbable that it could be the Soree Gallinule. 



Strange as it may appear, that a bird so ill calculated for migration 

 should be for the first time discovered in a country so populous and so 

 cultivated, and where the science of natural history is more generally 

 diffused in the present era than in any part of the world; yet it is 

 probable that the Foljambean Gallinule may hereafter be found to breed 

 in the fens of the eastern parts of Great Britain. It is more than pro- 

 bable the bird in question would be mistaken for the water-rail, by the 

 generality of sportsmen who might meet with it, and consequently may 

 have frequently been consigned to oblivion, for want of the eye of the 

 naturalist, and the rescuing hand of science. 



The habits of the smaller species of Gallinules, are their principal 

 security ; they are equally capable of diving and concealing their 

 bodies under water, with only the bill above the surface to secure 

 respiration, and to run with celerity and conceal themselves amongst 

 the rushes and flags of swampy places, from which they are with great 

 difficulty roused, even with the assistance of dogs, depending more on 

 concealment in thick cover, than upon their wings, to avoid danger, 

 which combine to keep these species of birds in obscurity. 



It is somewhat remarkable that this hitherto concealed species 

 should be discovered in different quarters at the same time, Mr. Plasted, 

 of Chelsea, having procured another specimen on the banks of the 

 Thames, about the same time with Mr. Foljambe, which prevents its 

 being considered as a lusus variety of any other species. About seven 

 years after, another specimen was named Gallinule Bailloni, after 

 M. Baillon, the coadjutor of Buffon, by Temminck, who describes it as 

 haunting the banks of rivers and lakes, in many provinces of France, 

 and in the whole of Italy. Its nest, he adds, is formed near the water, 

 generally laying seven or eight eggs, of the shape of an olive, and of a 

 brownish-olive colour, while its principal food consists of insects, snails, 

 water-plants, &c* 



OLIVE. — A name for the Oyster Catcher. 



OLIVE TUFTED DUCK— A name for the Golden Eye. 



ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY {Falco Rufipes, Bechstein.) 



Faucon, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 33. — Falco Rufipes, Beseke. Vbg. Kurlands, p. 

 13. 14. male and female. — Bechst. Tasschenb. Deut. 2. p. 39 — Meyer, Tass- 

 chenb. Deut. 1. p. 64. — lb. Vbg. Liv. und. Esthl. p. 23. — Faleo Vespertinus, 



Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 282.— Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 46 Buff. pi. Enl. 431.— In- 



grian Falcon, Lath. Syn. 1. p. 102. — Orange-legged Hobby, Lath. Syn. and 

 Supp. 2. p. 46. 



Several specimens of this small falcon having been lately met with 



