FALCONIMI.
and to occur cliiefly in winter. Dr. A. E. Brehm obtained
it on the Blue Nile. Nothing seems to be known of it
further south until we approach the extremity of the continent
; hut, though rare, it occurs in the Cape Colony,
where it encounters another ally, the Falco cuvieri, which
last seems to range along the western coast northward.
F. subbuteo again appears in the Canaries, where, according
to Dr. Carl Bolle, it is rare, though found in all the islands.
Mr. Drake saw it at Cape Negro, in Morocco, and the
Zoological Society formerly possessed specimens from Tan-
giers. In Algeria it is said, by Loche, to breed, hut Canon
Tristram and Mr. Salvin, the former of whom found it
migratory in the desert and halting in the dayats, as if on
its southward passage, are silent on that point.
The food of this species appears to consist less of birds
than of coleopterous insects. The stomachs of two specimens
examined by Mr. Henry Douhleday wrere filled with the
common dung-chaffer, Geotrupes stercorarius.
Specimens of the Hobby measure from twelve to fourteen
inches, depending on the sex. The male from which the
figure was taken had the beak bluish horn-colour, darkest at
the t i p ; the cere greenish-yellow, the irides dark brown;
the top of the head, nape, hack and upper wing-coverts,
greyish-black; the edges of the feathers huffy-white; the
primaries and secondaries nearly black, edged with dull
white; the two middle tail-feathers uniform greyish-black,
the others slightly barred with a lighter colour, the tips
also lighter. The chin and side of the neck white; the
cheek and moustache black; the breast and belly yellowish-
white, with longitudinal patches of brownish-black; thighs,
vent and under tail-coverts rust-red; under surface of the
tail-feathers barred with dull white and greyish-black; the
legs and toes yellow; the claws black.
Old birds have the upper surface of the body bluish-grey ;
in young birds the plumage is tinged with rufous.
RED-FOOTED FALCON. 69
ACCI PITRES. FA LC O N ID J i.
F alco v e s f e r t in u s , Linnaeus*.
THE BED-FOOTED FALCON.
Falco mfipes f.
T h e B e d -fo o t e d F a l co n , or Orange-legged Hobby, is a
species of small size, and so much in its general contour
resembling the Hobby, that Buffon described and figured the
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 129 (1766). + BeseLe, Vogel Kurlands, p. 20 (1792).,