298 THE HOBBY. 



space of eight or ten miles. Its power of wiug is useful not only in 

 enabling it to wage successful pursuit of swift-winged birds, but in giv- 

 ing it sufficient buoyancy to carry off' the prey which it has secured. 

 So strong is the Peregrine's wing that it has often been observed to bear 

 in its talons a bird larger than itself, and carry it to the nest without 

 difficulty. Even a guillemot has been struck and carried off* by the 

 Peregrine. 



The eggs of this bird are generally two or three in number, although 

 a fourth is sometimes known to be laid in the same nest. The color 

 of the egg is a very pale reddish brown, usually mottled with a darker 

 tint. 



In its adult state the Peregrine Falcon is very elegantly colored. 

 Tlie top of the head, the back of the neck, the primaries, and a stripe 

 beneath the eye are of a deep black-brown ; the upper parts of the 

 body are ashy brown, the latter tint becoming fainter in each success- 

 ive moult, and being always marked with a series of dark bars upon 

 its back, tail, and wing-coverts ; the breast is white, deepening 'into a 

 chestnut hue, and being barred transversely with reddish brown upon 

 the breast, and marked on the front of the throat with longitudinal 

 dashes of very dark brown. The remainder of the under plumage is 

 grayish white, profusely barred with dark brown. When young the 

 plumage is altogether of a more ruddy hue, and the birds are termed, 

 in the language of falconry, Red Tercels or Red Falcons, according to 

 their sex. 



The small but exquisitely-shaped Hobby is found spread over the 

 greater part of the Old World, specimens having been taken in Northern 

 Africa and in many portions of Asia, as well as in Europe, which seems 

 to be its chief residence. It was formerly very common in England, 

 but is year by year less seldom seen in that island, as is the case with 

 all its predaceous relations. From all accounts it seems to be rather a 

 local bird, being partially influenced by the nature of the ground and 

 the quantity of food which it is able to procure. 



This bird appears to favor inland and well-wooded lands rather than 

 the seashore or the barren rocks, thus presenting a strong contrast to 

 the Peregrine Falcon. We may find an obvious reason for this prefer- 

 ence in the fact that a considerable proportion of its food is composed 

 of the larger insects, especially of the fjit-bodied beetles, which it seizes 

 on the wing. Chafers of various kinds are a favorite prey with the 

 Hobby, and in several cases the stomachs of Hobbies that had been 

 shot were found to contain nothing but the shelly portions of the larger 

 dung-chafer (Geotrupes stercorarius). As, therefore, the common cock- 

 chafer is a leaf-eating insect and frequents forest lands for the purpose 

 of attaining its food, the Hobby will be found constantly in the same 

 locality for the object of feeding on the cock-chafer. And as the 



