ERYTHROPUS VESPERTINUS. 
Orang’e-leg’g’ed Hobby. 
Falco vespertimis, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 129. 
rufipes, Beseke, Yog. Kurlands, p. 13, tab. 3, 4. 
Cerchneis vespertinus, Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 314. 
Erythropxis vespertinus, Brehm, Yog. Deutschl., tom. i. p. 76. 
Pannychistes rufipes, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 57. 
Tinnunculus (^Erythropus') rufipes, Kaup, Class, der Siiug. und Yog., p. 108. 
( ) vespertinus, Kaup, Mus. Senckenb., 1845, p. 257. 
vespertinus. Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 21, Tinnunculus, sp. 13. 
This remarkably pretty species, whose natural home is in countries far warmer than our own, has been killed 
in England so many times that no question can arise as to the propriety of assigning it a place among the 
“ Birds of Great Britain.” Here, as well as in all the parts of Europe in which it has yet been discovered, it 
is strictly a migrant, and, moreover, is rendered remarkable by its peculiar habits : in the first place, it 
is gregarious, many often breeding in company ; in the next, it is so fearless of man that, if one or more 
of a number be killed, the remainder remain apparently regardless of danger ; thirdly, it is said to some- 
times breed under the roofs of houses, and even to construct its nest in their interiors ; and, lastly, it is 
crepuscular, feeding on insects captured in the twilight, and but seldom on birds ; much diversity, 
moreover, occurs in the colouring of the sexes and immature examples. It is somewhat doubtful whether 
there be not two or three species of this particular form included under the specific term vespertinus, inas- 
much as the dark-coloured males from China and South Africa have the under part of the wing white, 
and not plumbeous as seen in European specimens ; but, in their size and markings, nothing is ob- 
servable which would enable the ornithologist to determine the plurality or unity of these birds in a 
specific sense. 
The first recorded notice of the occurrence of this Falcon in our islands will be found in the fourth 
volume of Loudon’s ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ where the late Mr. Yarrell states that three indi- 
viduals (an adult male, a young male, and an adult female) were obtained in May 1830, at Horning, in 
Norfolk, and that a fourth specimen was shot at Holkham Park. Besides these he mentions, in his 
‘ History of British Birds,’ that a fifth example was shot in the same county in 1832, three more in York- 
shire, one in Durham, one near Devonport, and that a female was struck down by a Raven in Littlecote 
Park, near Hungerford. Since the publication of Mr. Yarrell’s work, several other specimens have been 
procured ; thus W. Oxenden Hammond, Esq., of St. Alban’s Court, Wingham, Kent, records, in the 
‘Zoologist’ for 1862, the killing of an adult female at Sandling Park, near Hythe, in the early part of the 
same year, and Mr. Stevenson, of Norwich, in the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1863, that he had recently [lurchased a 
young male which had been killed at Somerleyton Station, near Lowestoft, on the 12th of July, 1862. In 
a letter received from the last-mentioned gentleman, dated June 20, 1868, he informs me that an adult female 
had been killed on Yarmouth Broad a fortnight before ; and, more recently, Mr. H. Smither, of Churt, states 
that another adult female had been shot near Farnham. The above comprises all the British examples 
with which I am acquainted ; but there may be others which are unknown to me. There is no verified 
instance of its having been found in Scotland, and but one of its occurrence in Ireland. It is a constant 
visitant to Silesia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, the Tyrol, Switzerland, and the districts on the northern side 
of the Apennines, whence it passes to Provence and Tuscany. In France, as in this country, it is of rare 
occurrence, and is unknown in Holland. Mr. Jerdon states that, “ although generally spread throughout 
India, it is nowhere very common ; I killed it on the Neilgherries, in the Carnatic, and in Central India ; it 
is not very unfrequent in Lower Bengal and the neighbourhood of Calcutta during the rainy season only. 
It is found all along the Himalayan range; and I procured examples at Darjeeling.” 
As Mr. Jerdon justly remarks, not much is known of its habits; but that little I will here give in the 
language of those who have written a few brief notes respecting it. Pallas states that the birds he saw hunt 
towards evening, killing spiders, water-insects, and, occasionally, swallows, and breed in deserted crows’ 
nests ; the stomachs of those examined by Mr. Jerdon contained the remains of insects only. Fellowes says 
it is very common in Asia Minor, and that it builds its nest under the roofs, and sometimes even in the 
interior of houses. The Rev. H. B. Tristram, in his ‘ Notes on Birds observed in Southern Palestine,’ 
states that this pretty little Hobby is a summer migrant, but returns earlier than the common sjiecies. The 
absence of suitable woods is probably the reason of its being a rare bird and confined to the central districts; 
