136 THE FALCONS 



on hard rock ledges or buildings no nest whatever is made. (PI. LXIV.) Normally 

 the eggs vary from three to four in number, but rarely instances of five have been 

 recorded, and six young are said to have been found in one nest in Wales. The 

 eggs are often very handsome, varying from light tawny pink or orange-red to deep 

 brownish red or dark purplish brown. Occasionally a good deal of white ground 

 is visible, but hi many eggs it is completely obscured, while a few very dark blotches 

 or spots of almost blackish brown pigment are to be seen in some cases. Average 

 size of 223 Irish eggs, 2'01 x 1'59 in. [51/1 x 40*3 mm.]. Frequently the same spot, 

 or an alternative site close at hand, is occupied year after year. Incubation is 

 performed by both sexes, and if one of a pair is shot, the survivor finds a fresh 

 mate in a remarkably short space of time. They are laid on alternate days, but 

 information as to the incubation period is very scanty. Probably Macgillivray 

 was approximately right in estimating it at a month, and it is certainly not less 

 than three weeks. The eggs are generally laid about the second or third week of 

 April with us, exceptionally as early as the end of March. When the first clutch 

 is taken another is laid about three weeks later, but only one brood is reared during 

 the season. [F. c. E. J.] 



5. Food. Puffins and other sea-birds, pigeons. Also choughs, jays, mag- 

 pies, crows, rooks, starlings and other small birds ; ducks and other water-birds ; 

 various species of Waders ; rabbits, rats. Both parents take part in feeding the 

 young ; and fur and feathers are removed from all prey till the young are fledged, 

 [w. P. P.] 



HOBBY [Fdlco subbuteo (Linnseus). Van- winged hawk (Hants) ; riphook 

 (Berks). French, hobereau ; German, Lerchenfalke ; Italian, lodolaio]. 



I. Description. The hobby is a peregrine in miniature, but may always 

 be distinguished therefrom by the long red shank feathers. The sexes are alike, 

 and there is no seasonal change of coloration. The male has the upper parts slate- 

 grey, darker on the head ; the cheeks and throat white, the under parts buffish 

 white, with broad longitudinal black stripes, instead of transverse bars of black, 

 as in the peregrine. The long shank feathers, crissum, and under tail-coverts are 

 rust-red. The cere, eyelids and legs are chrome-yellow, the iris dark brown. 

 (PI. 149.) Length 12 in. [305*0 mm.]. The female differs from the male in having 

 the elongated, rust-coloured shank feathers striated with black. Length 14 in. 

 [355 '0 mm.]. Immature birds have the upper parts brown, each feather margined 



