298 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



HOBBY. 



Falco subbuteo, Linnneus. S.N., i., p. 127 (1766). 



The Hobby is a comparatively rare species in Kent, 

 and few instances of the discovery of the nest have 

 been made. It is a very shy and wild bird, and is 

 more often seen than obtained, 



Boys includes it in his Birds of Sanchvich, 1792, and 

 the Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, writing in 1844, states 

 that it is " not uncommon." There is a Kentish speci- 

 men in the Exeter Museum, bequeathed by the Bev. 

 Bower- Scott. Mr. W. Prentis says : "A pair of Hobbies 

 in the year 1860 took possession of an old Magpie's nest 

 on the top of a row of elm trees at Eainham, and they 

 seem to have brought off their young in safety. In 

 the month of June, 1864, a male Hobby was shot in 

 a cherry orchard this side of Sittingbourne, and the 

 female was seen." 



Lord Clifton, in 1866, writes : " As the persevering 

 extirpation of all birds of prey has made the Hobby 

 rather rare, the fact of three being seen together may 

 be of interest ; they resort every year to a wood near 

 Bochester, which is only used as a fox cover, where 

 I observed them one day last August. Their cry is 

 very shrill, unlike that of other Hawks, though some- 

 times they utter a note like that of the Kestrel's. They 

 are extremely active and restless, continually chasing 

 each other. There could be no doubt of this species, 

 from the note and the length of the wings. They have 

 seldom been shot at ; I have only heard of one being 

 killed ; probably they breed there. 



" On August 31, 1867, I revisited the wood where 

 I saw the three Hobbies together last year, and saw 



