VOL. VI.] LETTERS. 197 



district are not necessarily sporadic, for severe seasons notoriously 

 play havoc with some of our more delicate species, which in due course 

 recoup their numbers. 



My limited experience of the breeding of the Hobby in England is 

 as follows : — 



1. This year I visited a nest in a wood where they have bred each 

 season for at least ten years, despite the fact that about four years 

 ago one old bird and three young were shot at the nest, and the eggs 

 have been occasionally taken. 



2. About the same time I visited another nest in a wood in an 

 entirely different locality, where a pair have likewise bred for many 

 consecutive years. 



3. A little later this year, in yet another locality, the Hobby 

 reared young in the same wood where she has bred for at least three 

 years past. 



4. For at least five years the Hobby bred regularly in a wood in 

 Shropshire, despite the fact that the first clutch of eggs was regularly 

 taken. 



5. In 1907 a friend of mine visited a nest with eggs in the same 

 wood where yomig had been hatched the two previous years at least. 

 This wood was felled the following winter. 



6. In 1911 a friend of mine took eggs from a nest from which the 

 female had just been shot. The male apparently left the locality. 



Of the above instances, five demonstrate that the Hobby, though 

 a migrant, and rarer and more local, is no less regular a breeder in 

 England than the three other British-breeding members of the genus. 

 The sixth record is inconclusive. 



Of the several instances of nestmg cited in The Birds of Hampshire 

 and the Isle of Wight, the following five records similarly tend to con- 

 firm the statement that the Hobby is not sporadic : — 



(1) Doles Wood 



(2) X. Oakley (Munn) 



(3) Buckhill Wood (Wise) 



(4) Ipley(Turle) 



(5) Ringwood (Corbin), 



while the remainder are isolated instances and wholly inconclusive. 



With regard to the Grasshopper- Warbler, this species, though local, 

 is so well known to nest commonly in suitable localities year after 

 year, that it seems almost superfluous, mitil positive evidence is forth- 

 coming to the contrary, to encroach further upon yovu" valuable 

 space. C. S. Me ares. 



