THE HOBBY. 99 



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

 cultivated land, as that is of the open wilds. It nestles in 

 the wood, indeed, and often in the depth of the forest, if not 

 very extensive ; but it haunts in the fields, and though one 

 would be apt to suppose that, as it comes with the summer 

 birds of passage, it would feed on them, yet its favourite 

 game is the lark, which it assails even at its greatest height 

 in the sky. That height is, indeed, often so considerable, 

 and the one bird so intent on capturing, and the other on 

 escaping, that their manoeuvres can be better seen than most 

 chaces by birds of prey. The hobby has to keep the lark 

 both up and down ; for if there is good cover on the ground, 

 the lark can drop like a stone, and be safe ; and if the lark 

 can keep above the hobby, it is pretty safe also. On walking 

 across a tufted field, or by the side of a common, one may 

 sometimes observe a lark falling as if shot, only there is no 

 turning, and no flutter of the feathers ; and when it does so 

 fall, although at a very little distance (and one would be 

 inclined to think that it falls near a person or an animal 

 grazing, in order that these may scare the pursuer), it cannot 

 easily be seen ; and if it is, it has squatted so close, and is in 

 a state of such violent palpitation, that it may be taken with 

 the hand. If a lark is found acting thus, there is very 

 generally a hobby to be seen, darting off in that indignant 

 manner which birds of prey show when they lose their game. 

 At pairing time, the larks drop in a similar manner; but 

 that is earlier than the arrival of the hobby : and when they 

 alight they may be seen running along, or heard " churring" 

 an end of their exhilarating stave. 



When the hobby so far gets command of the lark as to 

 keep it to his height (and that is generally the case) the 

 chace is often rather a protracted one. The lark is not, in 

 proportion, so well winged as the hobby ; for the lark has 

 wings only for one-tenth the weight of that bird, and its 



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