THE HOBBY 161 
other in her turn. When one has succeeded in striking its prey, 
the other joins in the attack, and all three birds come to the 
ground together, buoyed in their descent by their expanded wings. 
The falconer now comes to the rescue, for though the Heron makes 
no resistance in the air, as soon as it reaches the ground it uses 
its formidable beak in defence, and unless prevented may work much 
mischief to its pursuers. 
As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight 
At an Heronshaw that lyes aloft on wing, 
The whyles they strike at him with heedlesse might 
The wary foule his bill doth backward wring. 
On which the first, whose force her first doth bring, 
Herselfe quite through the bodie doth engore, 
And falleth downe to ground like senselesse thing, 
But th’ other, not so swift as she before, 
Fayles of her souse, and passing by doth hurt no more, 
Faerie Queene, 
In France the ‘ cast ’ consisted of three Falcons, which were trained 
to perform particular duties, the first to start the game in the 
required direction, the second to keep guard over it, and the third 
to deal the fatal swoop. 
The ‘ Lanner ’ of Pennant is a young female Peregrine. 
THE HOBBY 
FALCO SUBBUTEO 
Wings longer than the tail; upper plumage bluish black; beneath, reddish 
yellow, with longitudinal brown streaks ; moustaches broad, black ; 
lower tail-coverts and feathers on the leg reddish; beak bluish, darker 
at the tip; cere greenish yellow; iris dark brown; feet yellow ; claws 
black. Female—all the colours duller, and the streaks below broader. 
‘Length twelve to fourteen inches; breadth about two feet. Eggs 
yellowish white, speckled with reddish brown. 
THE Hobby is a less common bird in England than in France, where 
it is said to be a constant companion of the sportsman, and to be 
endowed with enough discrimination to keep out of shot. Not 
satisfied with appropriating to its own use wounded birds, it pur- 
sues and captures those which have been fired at unsuccessfully, 
and not unfrequently even those which have been put up but have 
not come within shot. It is frequently taken, too, in the nets 
spread for Larks, or inveigled into the snare of the fowler who pur- 
sues his craft with limed twigs and the imitated cry of the Owl. 
It is a bird of passage, both on the Continent and in England, arriv- 
ing and taking its departure at about the same time withthe Swallow. 
In form and colouring it somewhat resembles the Peregrine Falcon, 
B.B, M 
