The Hobby. 145 



In the adults the phunage is bluish-grc}' on tlie upper ]jarts, barred with a 

 darker tint, the head black, and there is a Ijroad black patcli on either side 

 descending from the gape termed the viousfache ; the lower parts are white, suffused 

 with buff, spotted on the throat and upper breast, and transverseljf barred on the 

 remainder with blackish. Cere and legs bright yellow; irides dark ha/.el ; bill 

 horn colour. Length of male 15 inches, of female 19 inches. 



Young birds are ashy-brown above, darkest on the head, each feather edged 

 with yellowish-rufous ; under parts whitish, longitudinally streaked with dark 

 chocolate brown ; tail irregularly barred with reddish-brown, and tipped with white. 

 The nestlings are at first covered with white down. Varieties occur; the writer 

 has seen a female, obtained in Somerset, that had on the poll and nape the straw 

 yellow feathers characteristic of the Lanner. The Peregrines of the extreme west 

 of England are very white upon the chest, and have ever been highly prized by 

 falconers for their superior dash and courage. 



Family— FALCONID^. 



Hobby. 



Falco subbutco, LlNN. 



THE Hobby is a scarce and local summer visitor to our English woodlands 

 from the south, arriving late in W.2.y, restricted in its distribution, some 

 believe, to the same districts as those chosen b}- the Nightingale ; however, Robert 

 Gray considered that he had sufficient evidence of its having once nested in the 

 Isle of Arran. It chiefly affects the eastern and midland counties of England, is 

 always rare in the S.W. counties and in Wales, while in Ireland there are few 

 instances of its occurrence ; in Scotland it is onl}- seen as a passing migrant. Xot 

 unfrequently it is met with during the winter months, these being birds that have 



