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as the last-named bird. A great many Hobbies winter in Southern Europe ; and, like both 

 species of Kestrels, the full tide of migration seems to emanate from South-eastern Europe 

 and the little-known regions of South-western Asia. Thence in winter the Hobby visits India, 

 North-eastern Africa, and more rarely Western and Southern Africa. 



In Great Britain the keeper's gun everywhere prevents the Hobby from becoming a settled 

 resident ; and the havoc created among those which used always to migrate to this country has so 

 thinned the numbers that the bird is fast becoming a rare summer migrant. Where only a few 

 years ago the Hobby bred regularly, it is now scarcely seen. We have been favoured with 

 several notes from kind friends in this country, which we print entire, knowing the interest that 

 is felt by all in this beautiful little Falcon. Most of these letters tell a sad tale of slaughter and 

 extermination ; and the present generation will, we fear, live to find the Hobby classed as one of 

 the rarer British birds. 



In Great Britain its distribution during the breeding-season is thus given by Mr. 

 More : — 



" A scarce bird in all the districts where it breeds. Though noticed by Dr. Moore as 

 breeding in Warleigh woods, the Hobby is not included in any of the recent lists which I have 

 received from Devonshire ; nor have I any record of its nesting in Wales. It seems to be more 

 frequent in the south-eastern and midland counties of England, its distribution thus resembling 

 that of the Nightingale." It is doubtful whether it ever remains with us through the winter, 

 though Mr. Stevenson mentions one having been shot in February and two in March (one of 

 of these probably having been compelled to stay by reason of a wound). Mr. Sterland, however, 

 in the ' Birds of Sherwood Forest,' states that he has only met with the bird in winter, which is 

 pretty strong evidence that the species, if unmolested, would take up his residence here. 



In Norfolk the Hobby is a regular summer migrant, according to Mr. Stevenson ; and that it 

 used to breed in Suffolk is proved by the fact that Mr. Wolley's collection contained two eggs 

 from Burnt Fen, Middenhall, Suffolk, and two from Benacre, in the same county. Three eggs 

 from the New Forest are also recorded in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' by Professor Newton. 



In Messrs. Salvin and Godman's collection are two very interesting specimens of the immature 

 Hobby, bred in Essex. 



Mr. H. J. Elwes writes to us : — " I was informed by the late Mr. Spalding, of Westleton, 

 that a pair of Hobbies bred for five or six consecutive seasons in a wood called Palmer's Grove, 

 near Broon, in Norfolk. They laid always three eggs in an old Crow's nest, and commenced 

 incubation about the 10th of June. A set of the eggs are now in my collection." The Hobby 

 still occurs every summer in the immediate neighbourhood of London. Lord Lilford mentions 

 the fact of his receiving two, which we saw before they were sent off to Lilford ; and Sharpe has 

 another in his collection, caught near Epping Forest in the middle of June, 1870, about the same 

 time that Lord Lilford's two specimens were captured. 



Mr. F. Bond writes to us : — " The Hobby I have obtained two or three times at Kingsbury ; 

 the particulars of the last one are in Harting's ' Birds of Middlesex.' I have shot it in Stafford- 

 shire, and have eggs from Dorsetshire and Cambridgeshire." 



The Rev. O. P. Cambridge has told us that till within a few years he knew of the Hobby 



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