AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 15 



feeds on chafers and other beetles, dragonflies, and 

 grasshoppers. 



The old works on Falconry mention the Hobby as 

 having been often reclaimed and trained to take Larks 

 and other small birds but principally with the aid of 

 dogs and nets, by a method called " daring," of which 

 I quote the following quaint description from 'The 

 Book of Falconrie or Hawking, by George Turbervile, 

 Gentleman, An. Dom. 1611,' p. 56: "The doggs 

 they range the field to spring the fowle, and the 

 Hobbies they accustome to flee aloft over them, soar- 

 ing in the aire, whome the silly birdes espying at that 

 advantage and fearing this conspiracy (as it were) be- 

 twixt the dogs and hawkes, for their undoing and 

 confusion, dare in no wise commit themselves to 

 their wings, but do lie as close and flat as they possible 

 may do, and so are taken in the nets, which with us 

 in England is called Daring, a sport of all others most 

 proper to the Hobbie." 



In the estimation of the Falconer the Hobby has 

 one great defect : in spite of its remarkable docility 

 and marvellous power of wing, it is a bad footer, 

 i. e. it lacks the power or the will to clutch its prey 

 firmly. This, at all events, has been the case with all 

 the reclaimed birds of this species that I have seen, 

 and arises probably from the comparative delicacy 

 and weakness of the legs and toes, which are better 

 adapted for the capture of insects than of feathered 

 prey. 



The Hobby generally appears with us about the 

 middle of May, and I think in most instances selects 

 an old nest of the Carrion-Crow, Magpie, or Wood- 

 Pigeon to lay in. The usual complement of eggs is 

 three, though I have heard of instances of four young 



