_ 
vo, xI.}| BREEDING HABITS OF HOBBY. 195. 
even swoop towards the observer, uttering their cries 
meanwhile, many weeks before they have commenced to lay. 
Under such circumstances, and when observed day after day, 
the pair would always be found in the same group of trees, 
and when disturbed would make off for another group of trees 
equally persistently, perhaps a quarter or half a mile away. 
It has never been within my personal experience to know 
of Hobbies nesting in large woods. On the contrary, the 
birds seem to choose single trees or small plantations, even 
when large woods are in the immediate vicinity. A very 
common site appears to be a small plantation of from four 
to six acres in extent, and the favourite tree to be selected 
is, | think, the Scotch fir (I have known one nest in an elm, 
one in an oak, and one in a fir of a species other than Scotch). 
The nest when in a plantation is usually near the edge, and 
preference is shown for positions where trees are somewhat 
_ sparsely distributed, the bird being apparently averse to the 
centre of thick plantations and preferring to nest in trees 
from which access can easily be obtained to the open. 
There is no doubt that Hobbies are very partial to old 
nesting-sites and return to them year after year. I have 
known a Hobby to have been shot, and its mate to have 
been caught by a gin placed in the nest ; yet for some.reason, 
so attractive was this nest, that a pair chose it again two 
years afterwards and laid four eggs. 
The usual number of eggs for the first clutch is three, 
and when the first laying has been taken or destroyed, two 
_ is the usual number to be laid. On such occasions the second 
nest is oiten within a hundred yards of the first, aud [ have 
known it to be within fifty. The Hobby may lay one egg 
only, although a first clutch; on this occasion the ezg was 
found in a Crow’s nest, which had been vacated by the 
-young Crows only six days previously. 
As a curious instance of the indifference of certain wild 
birds to the smaller birds of prey, I have known a Wood- 
Pigeon and a Hobby to be sitting on eggs in the same tree 
at the same time. 
Two pairs may be nesting within a mile of each other, 
although previous to nesting the hunting-grounds may have 
been so close together that it has beea difficult to decide 
' whether two pairs were being observe or only one. 
Whether the Hobby is sufficiently confiding to ignore the 
frequent presence of people in the neighbourhood of its 
nest, or whether its love for an old nesting-site overrides its 
objection to altered conditions and more frequent disturbance 
I do not know, but I have known nests in plaatations which 
