34 RAPTORIAL BIRDS 
quently shot at and destroyed, that it seldom has the 
opportunity of following its natural instinct in this re- 
spect, and is altogether a much rarer bird in England 
than was formerly the case. 
The British Hobby extends its range eastward fo 
China, and southward to the Cape of Good Hope. 
It feeds much on small birds, but is also partial to 
cockchaffers, dragon flies, and other large insects, 
which it captures on the wing. Like the Merlia, the 
Hobby is sometimes trained for hawking larks, and 
“larks killed wt. the hobbye.” forms an item of fare 
in the curious and still existing household accounts of 
the Lestranges of Hunstanton Hall, in the reign of 
Henry the Eighth. 
The remaining genus of Falcons bears the name of 
falco, as it comprises all those species which are con- 
sidered typical Falcons, and which are the largest and 
most powerful birds of the falconine group, and the 
most highly. esteemed for the purposes of falconry. 
The first species of the genus is Falco peregrinator, 
which is arranged at the head of the typical Falcons, 
as bearing the greatest resemblance to the birds of the 
preceding genus, the Hobbies. This species is a native 
of Southern and Central India, and Ceylon; but in 
Northern India it is replaced by a nearly allied race,* 
Falco atriceps, a very rare bird in collections, of which 
an adult male from the Punjab is in the Norwich 
* By some ornithologists Falco atriceps is not admitted as a 
distinct species. 
