(ORANGE-CHESTED HOBBY.)
+Falco femoralis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 437 (Pampas).
+Hypotriorchis femoralis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid.
P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872,
p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 187, (Buenos
Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Patagonia); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 362
(Salta); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 412 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P.
Z. S._ 1883, p. 41 (Cordova); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470
(Lomas de Zamora). +Falco fusco-cærulescens+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._
p. 400.
_Description._--Above dull slaty blackish, rump variegated with
white; superciliaries lengthened and joined behind on the nape
rufous: beneath, throat and breast pale cinnamomeous with black
shaft-stripes on the breast; broad band across the belly black,
with slight white transverse lines; lower belly and thighs clear
cinnamomeous; wings and tail blackish with transverse white bars;
bill yellow with black tip; feet orange, claws black: whole length
13·5 inches, wing 10·0, tail 7·0. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ Central and South America.
The Orange-chested Hobby is found throughout South and Central America,
but the form met with here differs, to some extent, in habits from its
representatives of the hotter region. It is a Patagonian bird, the
most common Falcon in that country, and is migratory, wintering in the
southern and central Argentine provinces. In its winter home it is
solitary, and fond of hovering about farm-houses, where it sits on a
tree or post and looks out for its prey. Compared with the Peregrine
it has a very poor spirit, and I have often watched it give chase to
a bird, and just when it seemed about to grasp its prey, give up the
pursuit and slink ingloriously away. It never boldly and openly attacks
any bird, except of the smallest species, and prefers to perch on an
elevation from which it can dart down suddenly and take its prey by
surprise.
The nest is a slovenly structure of sticks on a thorny bush or tree.
The eggs, which I have not seen, Darwin describes as follows:--"Surface
rough with white projecting points; colour nearly uniform dirty
wood-brown; general appearance as if it had been rubbed in brown mud."