FALCON. 



weighs about nine ounces, sometimes more, and very 

 much resembles the male in plumage, but not so dark 

 above, and the lighter parts beneath not so ferruginous. 

 The wings of this bird are long and pointed, but do 

 not reach to the end of the tail when closed : the 

 second feather is longest. In the British islands the 

 hobby may be regarded as a summer bird of passage, 

 and it is the only British bird of prey which is so. It 

 arrives in England about the beginning of April, and 

 builds its nest shortly after upon some lofty tree ; but 

 it occasionally avails itself of the deserted nest of a 

 resident bird that builds earlier, such as the crow or 

 the magpie. The eggs are from two to four, which 

 appear to be the average, greatest, and least number 

 of the tribe. The young, which have more reddish 

 orange or bronze on the back than the old birds, are 

 fully feathered by the beginning of September, and in 

 October the whole depart to warmer climes. This 

 bird is a local one with us, and confined to England, 

 seldom reaching northward of the central heights of 

 the island. It is the contrast of the peregrine 

 falcon in its favourite haunts, and is a bird of the 

 cultivated land, as that is of the open wild. In- 

 deed, it nestles in the wood, and frequently in the 

 depth of the forest, if not very extensive ; but it hunts 

 in the fields, and though, as it comes with the summer 

 birds of passage, one would be apt to suppose that it 

 should feed on them, yet the lark is its favourite game, 

 which, even at its greatest height, it assails in the sky. 

 That height, indeed, is often so considerable, and the 

 one bird so intent on capturing, and the other on 

 escaping, that their manoeuvres can be seen better 

 than most chases by birds of prey. 



In this attempt to capture the lark, the hobby has 

 to guard against two chances of escape in that bird. 

 In the first place, if the lark can keep uppermost, so 

 as to have complete command of the sky, the hobby 

 can make nothing of it. But in order to get the better 

 of this, it cannot venture upon the same bold ascent 

 to which the more powerful falcons have recourse 

 when in danger of being foiled by other game ; for the 

 hobby must take equal care that the lark does not get 

 down to the ground, otherwise its escape would be 

 equally certain. Every one must have noticed the 

 beautiful style in which the lark comes down from the 

 very top of the sky, by a path nearly as perpendicular 

 as a stone does when it falls. This is a habit with the 

 lark in the breeding season, and when there is nothing 

 to alarm it. It may be heard on a fine spring day, 

 showering down its enlivening song from the upper 

 part of the sky, when itself is almost or altogether in- 

 visible, in consequence of its great elevation ; but the 

 upper sky is the place where sounds are heard to the 

 greatest advantage, much better than, the}' are at a 

 quarter of the distance on the level surface. Thus the 

 lark will hear the answer of its mate while that is alto- 

 gether unheard by one attending only to the songster 

 over head; and it will drop down like a falling stone, 

 and run among the clods, repeating the conclusion of 

 its stave in a softened and inviting tone. It would 

 drop down from the hobby in the same manner, squat 

 among the clods, and remain there so still and close 

 that no eye could discern it, and as the hobby is just 

 as much fitted for catching the lark as the lark is for 

 escaping from the hobby, of course the hobby labours 

 by every stratagem to prevent this. The chief aim 

 of the hobby is to preserve exactly the same level 

 with the lark, and to prevent it from getting either up 

 or down ; and, if the lark were a bird of straight-for- 



455 



ward flight, the hobby would very soon capture it, 

 both because it is a bi'rd of more powerful wing, and 

 because it is stimulated by hope while the lark is de- 

 pressed with fear. But the lark wheels and doubles, 

 and often succeeds in throwing its pursuer out. In 

 time, however, it gets exhausted, and the hobby breaks 

 across, catches it on the double, and the chase is at 

 an end. 



Notwithstanding its small size, this falcon does not 

 confine itself to such game as larks, for it flies at young 

 partridges, at snipes, and at many other species of birds, 

 some of which are larger and more powerful than 

 itself!. But its great boldness, its rapidity of flight, 

 and its power of continuance on the wing, give it 

 many decided advantages ; so that in the age of hawk- 

 ing the hobby was one of the pet falcons for small 

 game ; and used to afford what was considered as very 

 beautiful sport. 



The KESTREL (Falco tinnunculus). This is a very- 

 beautiful bird, about the same weight as the hobby, 

 and having wings of nearly the same extent ; but it is 

 longer in body, much more slender, and feebler both 

 in the beak and the talons. The female, as in all 

 birds of prey, is larger and more finely formed than 

 the male. She is reddish brown on the upper part, 

 with arrow-head dusky spots on the head, back, and 

 wing-coverts, and dusky bars on the tail, the last one 

 broad, and the tips of the feathers margined with 

 cream-colour. The quills, which are twenty-two in 

 number, are dusky, relieved by white margins ; the 

 under part is reddish cream-colour, with indistinct 

 dusky lines. The male, after the first year, has the 

 head and tail grey, during which it very much resem- 

 bles the female, the back brighter red, and with fewer 

 spots, and the under part redder, with more distinct 

 spots. The feathers on the chin are also more pro- 

 duced, and a black stripe proceeding from the gape, 

 which gives the light grey above the eye the appear- 

 ance of an eye-brow. The kestrel has a very pecu- 

 liarly brilliant eye ; the irides of which are rich brown, 

 contrasting well with the dark stripe and pale feathers 

 at the base of the bill and over the eye. The bill is 

 very short, and the notch nearly obliterated, and upon 

 the palate there are two rows of small teeth pointing 

 downwards, and very much resembling those with which 

 the tongues of beasts of prey are beset. The whole 

 structure of the bird indicates that it is less adapted 

 for pursuing winged game, tearing flesh, and pulling 

 feathers, than those hawks which have long wings ; 

 and its habits correspond with these differences of 

 structure. This species gets a variety of popular 

 names, such as the stone-gall, the stannel, the wind- 

 hover, and many others, all of which allude to the habit 

 which it has of leaning gracefully on the air, with 

 scarcely any motion of the wings at some periods, and 

 with an exceedingly rapid motion at others. In these 

 cases it is generally scrutinising the ground for nests 

 of unfledged birds, and especially for mice ; the latter 

 of which form a principal article of its food. It is, 

 indeed, altogether less daring in its predatory habits 

 than any other of the falcons, and may perhaps, with- 

 out much impropriety, be considered as forming a 

 link between the falcons and the kites, and perhaps 

 also, though to a less extent, between the diurnal and 

 the twilight birds of prey ; for it may often be seen 

 near houses about dusk, catching the large beetles and 

 moths, which operation it performs very dexterously 

 with its foot, and contrives to convey them to its 

 mouth without any pause in its flight. 



