The Natural History of Ireland/Volume 1/The Red-footed Falcon
THE RED-FOOTED EALCON.
- Orange-legged Hobby.
- Falco rufipes, Besecke.
- vespertinus, Gmel.
Is an extremely rare visitant.
Its occurrence in Ireland was first noticed, in a communication which I made to the Zoological Society of London (in June, 1835), respecting an immature specimen obtained in the county of Wicklow, in the summer of 1832. This bird was preserved for the collection of T. W. Warren, Esq. of Dublin, by whose kindness it was exhibited on that occasion. The specimen was given to Mr. Warren by a gentleman who shot it in his yard, just as it had pounced at a pigeon of at least its own size, which, with the hawk, fell dead at the one discharge. In March, 1833, Mr. W. S. Wall, bird preserver, mentioned to me, that he had in October, 1830, received a hobby in a fresh state, from Ballyveolan,county of Wicklow. My informant knew the species of birds so well, that the individual in question must doubtless have been either the Falco subbuteo or F. rufipes ; probably the latter, as a flight of them appeared in England that year.
Very few specimens of F. rufipes, — a native chiefly of the more eastern half of temperate Europe, — have been taken in England, and the first on record, was procured in 1830. Their second ap pearance in that country was in 1832, in which year the first mentioned specimen was obtained in Ireland. The species has not been met with in Scotland.