a few pairs were seen among the large terebinth trees near the foot of the hills of Judaea. They seem to 
roost and build there, feeding only in the plains, over which they hover, resembling the Kestrel in their 
habits and flight rather than the Hobby. 
“The Orange-legged Hobby {Eryt/vopiis vespertinus)," Lord Lilford, in his ‘Notes on the Birds 
observed by him in the Ionian Islands, &;c.,’ “ arrives in Corfu, occasionally in great numbers, about the 
latter end of April. In the spring of 1858 it was very abundant, particularly at Fano, a small rocky 
island to the north of Corfu, celebrated as a favourite resting-place for immense flights of quails during 
their vernal migration. It appears to be very fearless of man. I have watched a flock of five or six 
for upwards of an hour, during which time they often approached within ten or fifteen yards of where 
I sat, though I was in no way concealed. As far as my observation goes, this species only remains for a 
few days in Corfu, on its passage northwards ; and I have never heard of its occurrence in the Island, 
except in April and May. The stomach of a specimen I saw skinned contained the remains of large 
night-flying moths. Both this species and the Common Hobby are to be observed on the wing as late 
as 8 or 9 p.m. The Orange-legged Hobby often alights on the ground, and runs with great ease and 
speed.” 
About Talien Bay, in North China, “ This handsome little bird-slayer,” says Mr. Swinhoe (his remarks 
probably applying to the white-winged bird), “ was not unfrequently met with flying along overhead or 
hovering poised in the air. Judging from the contents of the stomachs of the two I procured, I should say 
it committed great havoc among the Larks and other field-birds. It certainly caused considerable conster 
nation wherever it appeared among them. I have had two opportunities of observing the nest of this 
species ; one was placed among the topmost boughs of a willow, the other amid the leafy foliage of some 
umbrageous tree. The nests were large and round, and built of sticks, resembling somewhat those of the 
Magpie. When the old birds visited the nest, the young (balls of white down, with bluish bills) set up a 
chattering ci'y.” 
“This pretty little Hawk,” says Mr. Wright, in his ‘List of the Birds observed in the Islands of Malta 
and Gozo,’ “visits us in the vernal and autumnal periods of migration, and in some years in much larger 
numhers than in others. It is sometimes to be met with in small flocks, when they will allow repeated shots 
to be fired at them without taking alarm.” 
Lord Lilford remarks that he once saw an Erythropus vespertinus in Andalusia, and that there is a spe- 
cimen in the Museum of Valencia; but it is not, he thinks, a common bird in any part of Spain. 
Turning to another part of the world, Africa — “ The birds of this species,” says the Rev. H. B. Tristram, 
“ have the same gregarious habits in Algeria that Mr. Cochrane has stated them to have in Hungary ; they 
are, however, very rare. The only breeding-place known to me is on the edge of a pine forest, near Djelfa, 
in Algeria proper ; and there there are not more than four or five pairs ; while in the eastern province of 
Constantine they do not seem to occur, except as stragglers. They return late from the south ; and on 
my visiting their rookery in June, 1856, they were employed in repairing old nests, and had not yet com- 
menced laying.” 
In Dr. Kirk’s paper ‘ On the Birds of the Zambesi Region of Eastern Tropical xAfrica,’ it is stated that 
“ this pretty little Hawk is found near the river. It appears only at sunset and in the dusk, when, coming- 
in great numbers from the shady forest or from among the fronds of the lofty Borassus-pahn, it hovers, 
swallow-like, over the plains and watei*, catching dragonflies and locusts, which, with other insects, caught 
on the wing, seem to constitute its chief or only food. In February and March it was seen in numbers on 
the Shire, where the bush-vegetation and palm-forest come down to the river.” This note also probably 
refers to the bird with white under wing-coverts. 
With respect to the nidification of this species, Mr. Cochrane (who had the good fortune to meet with it 
in Hungary during the breeding-season) informed Mr. Hewitson that it arrives in that country about the 
middle of April, and lays its eggs early in the following month. “They make no nest for themselves, but, 
after a fight with the lawful owners, take possession of those of the Crow, Rook, or Magpie, altering or re- 
pairing them to their own taste. Mr. Cochrane says he has found their eggs in a nest of Corms corone, that 
they are sometimes six in number, but most commonly four or five. ‘ Sometimes in isolated trees, at others 
as many as six or seven pairs in one tree, in a rookery, exactly as Rooks in England.’ The eggs most 
nearly resemble those of the Kestrel, being, however, for the most part considerably less ; like the eggs of 
that bird they are sometimes finely freckled throughout, and much resemble those of the red Grouse.” 
The Plate rej)resents an adult male and a female, of the size of life. 
