358 FALCON A\D EAGLE GROUP 



than any other member of the group. By no means common in Great 

 Britain, where it is less infrequent on the east than on the west coast 

 of Scotland, it is still more rare in Ireland, where it had been recorded 

 only on ten occasions up to 1900, and has never been known to breed. 

 In the southern, eastern, and midland counties of England hobbies' 

 nests are recorded from time to time, Norfolk and Lincoln being two 

 counties where these birds breed annually. In May 1907 a nest of 

 the hobby was discovered in Surrey, originally containing four eggs, 

 out of which two were hatched, and in due course the young took wing. 

 Both parents were shot by a gamekeeper, and there is some doubt 

 whether the young birds survived. As the north of England is 

 reached hobbies become scarcer, and in Yorkshire a nest is a rarity ; 

 while a nest found in 1887 near Dunkeld afforded the first record of 

 the species breeding in Scotland. In England hobbies have of recent 

 years undoubtedly become much scarcer than formerly ; and this is 

 attributed to the fact of their breeding in the midst of the pheasant- 

 rearing season, when their presence in a covert becomes too much for 

 the peace of mind of the keeper, despite the nature of their food, which 

 consists largely of dor-beetles, cockchafers, dragon-flies, and other big 

 insects, captured, together with small birds, outside the woods. Evening 

 and early morning are the favourite times for the hobby to be on the 

 wing ; its flight is as swift and active as that of the peregrine, although 

 "its pluck and daring stand on a much lower level. The speed of this 

 bird in the air ma\- be inferred from the fact that it frequently overtakes 

 and kills swallows and martins, while it is stated to be able to outstrip 

 even swifts. It is in spring, before large insects are abundant, that the 

 hobby chiefly attacks birds, which must, however, also form the prey 

 of those few individuals occasionally seen in Great Britain in winter. 

 From Scandinavia to central Europe comprises the usual north and 

 south limits of the hobby's breeding-range, while in the east China 

 and Kamchatka are countries where the species is known to nest. In 

 the matter of a repository for its eggs, the hobby apparently always 

 avails itself of the nest of some other bird, such as a crow or a kestrel, 

 which in some instances is not even repaired, although in other cases it 

 is stated to be rclined by the incoming tenant. From three to four or 

 five is the usual number of the eggs, which arc of the ordinary falcon 

 type, being mahogany-coloured with darker blotches, and measuring 

 about 1 1 inches in length, with a breadth of just over i [ inches. 



