HOBBY 



357 



towards blackness. On the other hand, buffish-uhite eggs with reildish- 

 brown scattered blotches are not unknown. 



A single example of the lesser falcon {Falco feldeggi), of the 

 Mediterranean countries and Persia, wa.^ taken in Lancashire in 1904. 



Hobby (Falco '^° ^ great degree a miniature of the peregrine, the 

 subbuteo). hobby is best distinguished from that species by this 

 marked inferiority in point of size, the females not 

 exceeding 14 and the males 12 inches in total length. In the adults of 

 both sexes the upper-parts are of the same slaty grey as in the peregrine, 

 and the under-parts white 

 with a broad blackish-brown 

 stripe down the middle of 

 each feather of the breast, 

 and the hind portion of the 

 abdomen and the long 

 feathers on the legs rusty 

 red. In immature birds 

 the crown of the head is 

 mottled with buff, while the 

 feathers of the rest of the 

 upper-parts are brown with 

 yellowish -white edges, and 

 those of the breast huffish 

 white broadly striped with 

 blackish brow n. It may be 

 added that the toes of the 

 hobby are relatively (as well 

 as absolutely) shorter than 

 in the peregrine ; the length 

 of the middle one, without 

 its claw, being i^ inches in 

 the former against i^ inches 

 in the latter. 



If we take the breeding- 

 habitat of a species as its 

 proper home, the hobby should be described as a denizen of the whole of 

 Europe and northern and Central Asia, whence it journeys south to visit 

 Africa and northern India in winter. Writers on British birds prefer, 

 however, in general to describe it as a summer-migrant to the British 

 Isles, which makes its appearace in April, although a later breeder 



THE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



HUBBY (MALK). 



