Unlike all the rest of his congeners this beautiful Falcon lives exclusively on insects. It is considered by the Mohammedan races as a sacred bird, on account of the way in which it destroys grasshoppers. Its flight is easy and bold, and the way in which he circles and floats in the air is beautiful. The young ones are also fed on insects, and as soon as they are fledged the little flock betake themselves to the meadows or the seashore and there begin with zeal their work of insect hunting. They settle on the meadows, on the freshly mown rows, and destroy the grasshoppers, and when there is a plague of these insects the Falcons are untiring in their work of extermination. It is one of the most gentle of birds, and the young ones when caught become tame in the course of a day. It can easily be seen from the expression of the eyes that there is no savagery at all in its nature. How different from the glance of the Sparrow-Hawk! It is a remarkable characteristic of this bird that not only does it differ from others of its species in its food, but also in regard to its nest. As a rule, it does not build a nest, but occupies one, generally at the cost of a battle, belonging to one of a colony of rooks. The fight for the nest is a fine spectacle, for in it the bird exhibits to the full its fine art of flight. In Hungary it is a regular migrant, and arrives in fairly large numbers.
The Red-footed Falcon is only a rare wanderer to the British Islands on its migratory flight, and chiefly to England. One was recorded as shot in Scotland in 1866—another, which is in the Dublin Museum, was taken in County Wicklow in 1832. It is a pity that this useful species, living as it chiefly does on insects and field mice, should only appear in our country to be shot.
On the steppes of Orenburg in Russia it has decreased during the last fifty years, owing apparently to the immigration of great numbers of the Lesser Kestrel, which used to be rare there. The flight of the Red-footed Falcon is not nearly so dashing as that of the Kestrel; you can note a difference in the expression of the eye and the shape of forehead of the two birds.
The clutch of eggs numbers five to six. They are of a yellowish-white ground-colour, with spots and marblings, some darker, some lighter. The nest structure is scanty, and is seldom built by the bird itself; it appropriates the old nest of a Crow, Magpie or Rook. The male of this species is for the most part slate-grey in colour, the thighs and under side of the tail are bright chestnut-red. The iris and the feet are red. The colouring of the female is more diversified. The mantle is bluish-grey, with blackish stripes, like those on the tail; the sides of the belly are light rusty-brown, throat and nape white. The forehead is whitish; top of the head rust-coloured, legs and feet reddish. The claws are nearly white.
The Common Buzzard.
(Búteo vulgáris.)
This bird is equally at home in the plains and in the highlands. It goes South in the winter, except in mild seasons. Like the Kite it soars to a great height with a fine sweeping movement, crying “keo-keo.” It descends and with an easy stroke hovers near the ground, from which it seizes frogs, lizards, and even poisonous snakes; but besides marmots, moles, rats, and leverets, its chief diet is mice, of which it requires 20 to 30 for one good meal. It usually perches on a hayrick, a post, or a dry tree to watch for its prey, sitting motionless save for a movement of its head from side to side, until a mouse emerges from its hole. Then it raises its wings, darts downwards, and secures the booty. In years when a superabundance of mice appear, the Buzzards also are numerous, and fare plenteously. At such times, hundreds of tufts of mouse-hair are found beneath the trees where the Buzzards spend the night.
It would be a good thing if the farmer were to set up perching posts in the places which are infested by mice, so that the Buzzards might settle on them to watch the ground. Posts about the height of a man, and the thickness of an arm, with a cross piece at the top, would perfectly serve the purpose.
The Buzzard, then, is useful; but it cannot be denied that it sometimes does harm when it gets into a pheasant run, or places where partridges and hares are preserved.
The bird is still common in Hungary.
USEFUL.