FALCONS 9 



deserted nest of a Crow or Magpie. In Yorkshire 

 it has nested at Rossington, near Doncaster ; at 

 Bishop's Wood, near Selby, in 1869, and at Evering- 

 ham Park, near Market Weighton, in 1875. In 

 North Lincolnshire it nests annually in the wood- 

 lands near Louth, and also between Langworthy and 

 Wragby. As to its breeding in Norfolk, see Nor- 

 gate, Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc, iii. p. 351. It used 

 to breed formerly in Oakley Wood, near Hathern, 

 Leicestershire. In Essex, in 1877, a nest with four 

 young was found at Felstead. In 1878 and 1879 

 there were nests at White Notley, near Witham, 

 Essex, from which the young were taken and flown 

 " at hack" by W. Brewster. He and I trained them 

 to fly at Larks, and I kept one of them until the fol- 

 lowing winter, when it died during a frost. In May 

 1881 a nest of the Hobby with four eggs vTas found 

 by a gamekeeper of Lord Ebury in a fir tree in Moor 

 Park, Herts. 



There can be no doubt that the Hobby of late 

 years has become much scarcer in England, from its 

 coming to the woods to breed at a time when game- 

 keepers are anxious about the young pheasants. 

 Ignoring the fact that it leaves the woods to feed, 

 takes its prey on the wing, and feeds largely on 

 insects, they lose no opportunity of destroying both 

 old and young by shooting into the nests. Where 

 more enlightened proprietors forbid such wanton 

 destruction, the Hobbies live to afford pleasure and 

 amusement to many by their beautiful evolutions on 

 the wing. Between the years 1882 and 1890 inclu- 



