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In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 105 
October. They come in thousands, always prior to their migration ; 
and it is a strange thing that whenever they are here in those 
quantities there are sure to be several Hobbies round about the 
withy-bed, sometimes quite late in the evening. I often wait for 
them, and I was lucky enough to shoot a beautiful specimen (an old 
hen) this year.” 
Falco Rufipes, “The orange-legged Hobby.” Of this rare species 
of Falcon, of which only about twenty examples have occurred in 
the British Isles since 1830, when four were killed in Norfolk (as 
Professor Newton, in his latest edition of Yarrell, tells us), I have 
(I am sorry to say) no recent notice. Neither is Mr. Hart, of 
Christchurch, able to give me any instances of their capture of late 
years in the neighbourhood. Mr. Rawlence, of Wilton, however, 
has, in his excellent collection of Falconide, a good pair, which 
were shot in a plantation on the downs at Kingston Deverill, near 
_ Warminster. This enables me to claim this species as having oc- 
eurred in our county, and I also see in the Zoologist for this month 
(April, 1877,) that Mr. Hayden, of Fordingbridge, ten miles from 
hence, records that a specimen of the Red-Legged Hobby was 
_ killed close to that place in December last, which is the more singu- 
lar, as this little Falcon is a recognized summer visitant. But 
besides this I am not able to say anything more about them. 
They are at the best but stragglers to our shores, and do not seem 
_ to be more frequent in the adjoining countries of the continent; 
their true home appearing to be in the East of Europe, where they 
sometimes occur in large flocks, not only of tens, but of hundreds. 
_ Falco Tinnunculus, “The Kestrel.” This bird still remains 
‘common in our immediate neighbourhood, though, from my own 
observation, I should say it is scarcely to be so frequently met with 
as it was some ten or twelve yearsago. And here I would fain plead 
against its wholesale destruction, for, as a rule, it is surely more or less 
-innocuous—taking the place by day of the owl by night, and living 
chiefly on mice, frogs, and beetles. It will doubtless occasionally vary 
its diet with a second or third course of game, but only when it is 
very young and tender. I have in my own collection a fine grey 
5 male bird, that was taken in a gin by one of the Clarendon keepers. 
4 
wt 
