ARGENTINE HOBBY 55 
ARGENTINE HOBBY 
Falco fusco-czrulescens 
Above dull slatey black, rump variegated with white; superciliaries 
prolonged and meeting behind, rufous; beneath throat and breast 
pale cinnamon with black shaft-stripes on the breast; belly black 
with white transverse lines; wings and tail blackish with transverse 
white bars; bill yellow tipped with black, feet orange; length 13.5, 
wing 10 inches. Female similar but larger. 
THE Orange-chested Hobby is found throughout 
South and Central America, but the form met with 
here differs, to some extent, in habits from its repre- 
sentatives of the hotter region. It is a Patagonian 
bird, the most common Falcon in that country, and 
is migratory, wintering in the southern and central 
Argentine provinces. In its winter home it is solitary, 
and fond of hovering about farmhouses, where it 
sits on a tree or post and looks out for its prey. Com- 
pared with the Peregrine it has a poor spirit, and 
I have often watched it give chase to a bird, and 
just when it seemed about to grasp its prey, give up 
the pursuit and slink ingloriously away. It never 
‘boldly and openly attacks any bird, except of the 
smallest species, and prefers to perch on an elevation 
from which it can dart down suddenly and take its 
prey by surprise. 
The nest is a slovenly structure of sticks on a 
thorny bush or tree. The eggs, which I have not 
seen, Darwin describes as follows: “ Surface rough 
with white projecting points; colour nearly uni- 
form dirty wood-brown; general appearance as if 
it had been rubbed in brown mud.” 
