256 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



for recreation is religiously observed. Once the 

 Hobby's haunt is found and its mode of life ascer- 

 tained, you can safely rely upon entertainment for 

 a summer's afternoon. 



Nearly all the Hobby's food, which consists 

 chiefly of beetles, moths, and dragon-flies, with 

 small birds, such as Pipits, Larks, Tits, and even 

 Swallows, is procured in the air and full in the 

 open, where no tree-growth exists to hamper this 

 dashing hawk's rapid rushes and effective on- 

 slaughts. It is certainly a beautiful sight to 

 watch a Hobby, as it careers along, seize without 

 abatement of speed a dragon-fly with unerring 

 talon, and with well-nigh one and the same motion 

 transfer the gauzy- winged insect to its mouth. 

 Only the body is eaten : the now-useless wings 

 flutter aimlessly to the ground. The Kestrel some- 

 times does the same only in rather different 

 fashion with beetles, yet never with such a 

 devil-may-care sort of action as the Hobby. 



The Hobby's method of hunting and of 

 quartering likely ground is quite unique. As it 

 sails over the open at a fair altitude, now with 

 rapid winno wings, now \vith smooth glides, like a 

 well-oiled and perfectly balanced bicycle being 

 alternately pedalled and free-wheeled, and looking 

 very like a little Peregrine, albeit far neater than 

 even that masterful bird, it suddenly sights a 

 quarry, such as a chafer or dragon-fly. Down it 

 dives abruptly on a very steep slant to within a 



