8 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Recorded as breeding at Beachy Head {Zool., 

 1849). Very rarely nests in trees, but does so, 

 according to Mr. R. L. Patterson, at Glenarm in 

 county Antrim. In the middle and western prairie 

 regions of North America, where there are no suit- 

 able cliffs, the Peregrine (or Duck Hawk, as it is 

 there called) often nests on the tops of large syca- 

 mores. That it occasionally preys on small birds is 

 certain : a male brought to Swaysland, the Brighton 

 birdstuffer, on January 5, 1864, had eaten a Green- 

 finch, and the crop also contained the legs of a 

 common Bunting, as well as portions of four other 

 small birds. I once saw a Peregrine kill a Snipe, 

 which it took at the first stoop ; this was on Riddle- 

 hamhope Moor, in Northumberland. 



The average weight of the tiercel or male is 

 1 lb. 10 oz. ; of the falcon or female, 2 lbs. 8 oz. 

 Expanse of wing, male, 38 to 39 in. ; female, 46 in. 



HOBBY. Falco suhhuteo, Linnaeus. PL 2, fig. 4. Length, 

 $ 11-5 in., $ 13-5 in.; wing, $ 10 in., $ 10-5-11 in.; 

 tarsus, $ 1-25 in., $ 1*4 in. 



A summer migrant to England and Scotland, 

 arriving in April, but not common ; still rarer in 

 Ireland {Zool, 1877, p. 471; 1883, p. 122; 1890, 

 p. 357). Of more frequent occurrence in the east 

 than the west of Scotland (Gray, "Birds of West 

 of Scotland," p. 29). As to nesting in Scotland, 

 see Sir E. Newton, Zool, 1889, p. 32. 



The Hobby breeds later than any other hawk 

 [Naturalist, 1853, p. 274), generally occupying the 



