. A history of British birds . arius. Specimens of the Hobby measure from twelve to fourteeninches, depending on the sex. The male from which thefigure Avas taken had the beak bluish horn-colour, darkest atthe tip ; the cere greenish-yellow, the irides dark brown;the toj) of the head, nape, back and upper wing-coverts,greyish-black; the edges of the feathers huffy-white ; theprimaries and secondaries nearly black, edged with dullwhite ; the two middle tail-feathers uniform greyish-black,the others slightly barred with a lighter colour, the tipsalso lighter. The chin and side of the neck white
. A history of British birds . arius. Specimens of the Hobby measure from twelve to fourteeninches, depending on the sex. The male from which thefigure Avas taken had the beak bluish horn-colour, darkest atthe tip ; the cere greenish-yellow, the irides dark brown;the toj) of the head, nape, back and upper wing-coverts,greyish-black; the edges of the feathers huffy-white ; theprimaries and secondaries nearly black, edged with dullwhite ; the two middle tail-feathers uniform greyish-black,the others slightly barred with a lighter colour, the tipsalso lighter. The chin and side of the neck white ; thecheek 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 thetail-feathers barred with dull white and greyish-black; thelegs 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 ACCIPITRES. FALCONID^ Falco vespertinus, LinnsBus*.THE RED-FOOTED FALCON. Falco rufi]pes\. The Red-footed Falcon, or Orange-legged Hobby, is aspecies of small size, and so much in its general contourresembling the Hobby, that Buffon described and figured the * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 129 (1766). t Beseke, Vijgel Kiirlaiuls, p. 20 (1792). 70 adult male as a singular variety of that bird. The youngfemale has more the appearance of a young Merlin. Abouttwenty exam2)les have been recorded of its occurrence in theBritish Islands since the year 1830, when four were killed inNorfolk (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 116). The majority of spe-cimens have been obtained in the eastern or southern coun-ties, as in that already named, Suffolk, Surrey, Kent, Sussex,Devon and Cornwall; but it has also been met with inBerkshire, Shropshire, Yorkshire, Durham and Northumber-land. In Scotland two have been killed near Aberdeen, andin Ireland a single example in the county of Wicklow. The g
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
