RECOLLECTIONS 241 



1 And they, on their part, must have been 

 sorry when one September day it was found that 

 they had obeyed the inexorable law of migra- 

 tion, and had left the good food and the thick 

 elms of Lilford, to march with their tribe. 



' For mere falconry they had not been a 

 success, even under Cosgrave's careful training. 

 The feet and claws of a Hobby are too small to 

 be very dangerous to other birds. 



' Lord Lilford used to say that sometimes 

 they caught bats in the evening, but that they 

 generally fed on large moths and cockchafers. 

 Degenerate falcons Hobbies seem to be, who have 

 resigned their rightful pursuit of ornithology to 

 become entomologists ! 



' Many other Falcons were to be seen at 

 Lilford. Every visitor to the house knew them 

 on their blocks under the cedar. 



' Trained Peregrines were always there, and 

 varieties of Peregrines from all parts of the 

 world ; though the oak, and the elm, and the 

 bonnie beech tree grew too well in Northampton- 

 shire to permit much hawking, except with a 

 short-winged Goshawk. 



' Wild Peregrines, too, every winter followed 



R 



