Oct. 1, 1S68.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



231 



says that " it is common in Corfu in spring and 

 autumn. I have an immature specimen, which was 

 shot by an officer of the 3rd Buffs, on the roof of 

 Eort Neuf barracks at Corfu. I saw a Hobby near 

 Cettinge, the chief town of Montenegro, in August, 

 1S57." It also appears to be a regular visitant to 

 Malta, according to Mr. Wright, who says {Ibis, 

 1SG4, p. 4S), "it is not uncommon '.in spring and 

 autumn. As is the case with all birds of passage, 

 the Hobby is much scarcer in some years than in 

 others. In the autumn of 1S62 I could not obtain 

 a single specimen." In Spain, Lord Lilford says 

 {Ibis, 1865, p. 175) "the Hobby is not un- 

 common in Andalusia, where I have several times 

 seen it, and is found more or less commonly 

 throughout Spain during the summer." Mr. Gurney 

 has recorded it from Beyrout, in Syria; and the 

 Rev. H . B. Tristram says that in Palestine it is 

 " another summer visitor, rather late in its return, 

 confined, so far as we observed, to the wooded 

 districts, and resorting to the olive-yards and open 

 glades." Following the Hobby to its haunts in 

 Africa, we learn from the same reverend gentlemau 

 that " it is migratory in the desert, baiting in the 

 Dayats, apparently on its passage south ; " and the 

 great Abyssinian traveller Heuglin states, in his 

 paper on the birds of North-eastern Africa, that 

 " the Hobby is sometimes seen in Egypt during 

 winter; but it appears to be found there all the 

 year through. I killed two old birds in the months 

 of June and August, 1852, in Siut (Upper Egypt), 

 and in Dongola." Mr. Drake also says, in his paper 

 on the birds of Tangier and Eastern Morocco {Ibis, 

 1867, p. 424), "I saw this bird twice near 

 Cape Negro." The Hobby even extends to Cape 

 Colony, as we learn from Mr. Layard's recently- 

 published work on the birds of South Africa. There 

 the author records several instances of its occur- 

 rence, and adds, "Mr. Sclater writes, 'Never 

 before received from south of the equator.' " Mr. 

 Layard adds a foot-note : " This observation of Mr. 

 Sclater's opens up a curious subject of inquiry. 

 Have this and other species only lately found their 

 way down the continent ? Or have they escaped 

 the notice of observers ? I incline to the former 

 supposition, as I cannot conceive that some of our 

 common species should have escaped the notice of 

 such men as Dr. A. Smith and Le Vaillant." I 

 have quoted the above, as I find, from Yarrell's 

 " British Birds," that it did not escape Dr. Smith's 

 observation; for in his first volume (p. 43) Mr. 

 Yarrell says, "Dr. Andrew Smith considers it as 

 an inhabitant also of South Africa, in the vicinity of 

 the Cape." 



Thus, as the observations on the habits of the 

 Hobby by British field naturalists are scanty, I 

 have endeavoured, by collecting the notes of those 

 who have observed the species in couutries where 

 the bird is commoner, to give some idea of its 



history, habits, and geographical distribution. Its 

 geographical range may be stated briefly to be ex- 

 tended over the following countries : — 



Europe ; Malta (Wright) ; Siberia (Radde) ; 

 Amur-land (Schrenk) ; China (Swinhoe) ; India 

 (Blyth) ; Oudh (Irby) ; South Russia (Moeschler, 

 Demidoff) ; Crimea (Demidoff) ; Syria (Gurney) ; 

 Palestine (Tristram) ; North-east Africa (Heuglin) ; 

 Sahara (Tristram) ; Tangier (Drake) ; Cape of Good 

 Hope (Layard). 



In India and South Siberia it meets with the 

 range of another Hobby {II. severus), which latter 

 species is found in India, Java, and the Indian 

 Archipelago, being replaced in its turn by H. 

 lunulatus in Elores, Amboina, Ceram, and Australia. 



R. B. Suaepe. 



Old Tree. — In the churchyard at Tisbury stands 

 a venerable yew of immense size, well worthy of a 

 place among the celebrities so pleasingly recorded 

 by Mr. Spicer last month. The trunk, which is 

 hollow, with a large opening towards the north, 

 measures thirty feet six inches round. By a calcu- 

 lation made from the appearance of an exposed sur- 

 face, it must be at least one thousand five hundred 

 years old. Britton, in "Beauties of Wiltshire," 

 says of it : " In the churchyard is a large hollow 

 yew-tree 8 or 10 yards in circumference, from the 

 roots of which, near the centre, eight young stems 

 have sprung up, twisting themselves together in a 

 curious form, and, at about the height of two yards, 

 struck into the centre of the principal remaining 

 trunk of the parent tree, the hollow of which they 

 entirely fill up." Tradition tells that a former 

 vicar, who, from motives of economy, used to pasture 

 two cows in the yard, on one occasion lost them for 

 three clays, at the end of which they were found in 

 the tree. I fear however, especially after what Mr. 

 Britton says about the young stems, that the story 

 needs to be received with caution. I regret to say 

 that the tree is decaying fast, a great many roots 

 having been destroyed about twelve years since, in 

 lowering the level of the graveyard. — A. 67. 



Blechntjm Spicant (p. 212). — I have found 

 both the fertile and barren fronds of this fern 

 bifurcated, the latter the more frequently of the 

 two. I last saw an example near Llyn Dulyn, 

 Carnarvonshire, in the neighbourhood of which 

 grow Allosorus crispus, Polypodium phegopteris, 

 P. dryopteris, Cystopteris fragilis, and many other 

 plants worthy of notice. — B. 



Eucampia Zodicatus.— Smith, in his synopsis of 

 "British Diatomacese," vol. ii. p. 25, says that this 

 diatom is obtained in the stomach of Pecten maximus. 

 I have found it in the mud in Whitehaven harbour, 

 sparingly mixed with other forms common to it. — 

 B. Taylor. 



