SOME THREATENED BRITISH SPECIES 201 



gamekeepers, so that the only wonder is the Hobby 

 exists as a British species at all. This pretty little 

 Falcon arrives in those English woodlands where 

 it breeds in small numbers in May. Its summer 

 resorts in England are principally in the south- 

 eastern and midland counties of England, including 

 Hampshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge- 

 shire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northampton- 

 shire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. It has only been 

 known to nest on one occasion in Scotland. We 

 may also add that the Hobby, for a raptorial bird, is 

 a comparatively harmless one, its food consisting 

 chiefly of insects and small birds ; but the latter do 

 not appear to be killed in any great numbers. Our 

 stock of indigenous Hobbys may yet be far from 

 exhausted ; still, we have the fate of the Honey 

 Buzzard and the Harriers before us, and it behoves 

 us to afford the present species some protection 

 before it is reduced to a mere remnant. We may 

 here take the opportunity of alluding to the 

 Goshawk {Astiir paluTnbarius), and to state, in our 

 opinion, that this species was never indigenous 

 to the British area within historical time. Cer- 

 tainly there is no evidence for it which can 

 be classed as thoroughly reliable, and there 

 can be little doubt that this Hawk was never 



