NOTES AND QUERIES. 427 



interesting addition to the avifauna of our county. I heard, from one of 

 my gamekeepers, that on July 17th he had taken three young of the Greater 

 Spotted Woodpecker, Picus major, from a hole in an oak tree in one of my 

 woods, and attempted to rear them, without success. This species cannot be 

 considered as rare in this neighbourhood, although far less abundant than 

 the Lesser Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, but the nest has been seldom 

 met with to my knowledge hereabouts. On August 13th two young 

 Hobbies, Falco subbuteo, were taken from an old nest of a Carrion Crow in 

 a tall oak tree in a wood of great extent some miles distant from this house, 

 and brought thither. On my return home, on August 16th, I found these 

 birds in good health, with much down still amongst their feathers. I am 

 glad to say that the parent birds were spared ; the gamekeeper in charge of 

 the wood above mentioned told my man, who went over to fetch these little 

 Falcons, that he believed a pair or two of this species had bred in the same 

 quarter of the wood for many years past, but curiously enough he had no 

 distinguishing name for them. A rotten egg was in the nest with these two 

 young birds. I may also mention that a pair of Hobbies have been haunt- 

 ing one of my woods near this house throughout the months of July and 

 August ; we have not been able to discover their nest, and I suspect that 

 their eggs or young must have been destroyed by other than human agency. 

 In Barnwell Wold a pair of Hobbies have certainly reared a brood this 

 season ; Mr. G. Hunt saw three in one tree on August 31st close to the 

 Wold, and I and many others have seen two or three, and once four, of 

 these birds on several occasions haunting some rough pasture land in 

 my possession adjoining the Wold. These Hobbies are, comparatively 

 speaking, by no means shy ; they glide swiftly at no great height from the 

 ground, crying incessantly. I have not seen these last-mentioned individuals 

 in pursuit of any " quarry," but in a locality nearer home, whilst I was 

 waiting to shoot Wood Pigeons on Sept. 6th, I noticed a commotion amongst 

 a large flock of Rooks at a great distance. I saw a dark speck shoot from 

 the clouds through them nearly to the ground, and a minute or two after- 

 wards a fine old Hobby passed within twenty yards of me with a Yellow- 

 hammer in her claws. I am doing my utmost to preserve this beautiful 

 species from destruction in this neighbourhood ; but I always like to have a 

 Hobby or two alive, and am particularly anxious to obtain an adult bird 

 early enough in the season to train her for " daring " Sky Larks, as described 

 by old British authors on Falconry. The Hobby seldom lingers with us 

 beyond the end of September, and my personal experience is that the young 

 are rarely fit to train till towards the end of August, so that the time for 

 teaching them their business is very short, whereas an old bird knows it, 

 and would only require to be " reclaimed," a very short operation to any 

 person who understands hawks, with this more docile of the British 

 Falconidce. Mr. W. Tomalin, of Northampton, has recorded (p. 300J, and 



