262 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



Quite apart from its characteristic flight, the 

 general cut of the Hobby is undeniable. To me, 

 at any rate, it resembles a compromise between a 

 large Swift and a diminutive Peregrine. The long, 

 narrow, sharp and stiffly pointed pinions, admirably 

 adapted for cleaving the air cleanly and with 

 vigorous precision, are not in the least like the long 

 yet limper wings of the Kestrel, nor yet do they 

 partake of the comparatively rounded wings of the 

 Sparrow-Hawk. Moreover, its tail is perceptibly 

 shorter and more wedge-shaped than that of either 

 of those species. At the same time, to fully 

 appreciate these nice distinctions you should have the 

 good fortune to behold these three birds in the air 

 together, as I have done ere now. On one occasion 

 I was lying hidden in a ditch on a southern common. 

 A Kestrel was hovering characteristically almost 

 immediately above me ; the Hobbies for there was 

 a pair had just left the wood hard by to start 

 their evening's work and play ; when a Sparrow - 

 Hawk headed quickly past the trio, making for an 

 outlying covert, where I well knew she had a nest. 



With the Merlin, which the Hobby (especially 

 the young Hobby) slightly resembles in some details, 

 there is hardly any need to cite comparison, since 

 the former, being normally a northerly nester, is 

 only likely to be seen in the haunts of the Hobby 

 during w r inter, when the latter bird is far away in 

 Africa. The Hobby is merely a summer-visitor 

 to Britain, arriving late in April and through May, 





