ERYTHROPUS VESPERTINUS.
Orange-legged Hobby.
Falco vespertinas, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 129.
— rufipes, Beseke, Vög. Kurlands, p. 13, tab. 3, 4.
Cerchneis vespertinas, Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 314.
Erythropus vespertinas, Brehm, Vög. Deutschl., tom. i. p. 76.
Pannychistes rufipes, Kaup, Natürl. Syst., p. 57.
Tinnmculus (Erythropus') rufipes, Kaup, Class, der Säug, und Vög., p. 108.
——(-------——-) vespertinas, Kaup, Mus. Senckenb., 1845, p. 257.
vespertinus, Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 21, Tinnunculus, sp. 13.
T h is 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 h abits: 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 sometimes
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 b ird s; much diversity,
moreover, occurs in the colouring o f the sexes and immature examples. I t is somewhat doubtful whether
there be not two o r three species of this particular form included under the specific term vespertinus, inasmuch
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 observable
which would enable the ornithologist to determine the plurality or unity o f these birds in a
specific sense.
The first recorded notice of the occurrence o f this Falcon in our islands will be found in the fourth
volume o f Loudon’s * Magazine of Natural History,’ where the late Mr. Yarrell states that three individuals
(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 a t 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 Yorkshire,
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., o f St. Alban’s Court, Wingham, Kent, records, in the
‘ Zoologist’ for 1862, the killing o f 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 purchased a
young male which had been killed a t Somerleyton Station, near Lowestoft, on the 12th o f 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, M r. 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 o f its having been found in Scotland, and but one of its occurrence in Ireland. I t is a constant
visitant to Silesia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, the Tyrol, Switzerland, and the districts on the northern side
o f 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 In d ia ; it
is not very unfrequent in Lower Bengal and the neighbourhood o f Calcutta during the rainy season only.
It is found all along the Himalayan ran g e ; and I procured examples a t Darjeeling.”
As Mr. Jerdon justly remarks, not much is known o f its h abits; 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 o f 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 species. The
absence of suitable woods is probably the reason of its being a rare bird and confined to the central districts;