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up more than a month. The egg which the gamekeeper kept for me has rather more red about 

 it than is usual for a Sparrowhawk's egg to have, and not so much as the Hobby's usually has ; 

 but the Hobby's sometimes very much resembles the Sparrowhawk's. I have hoard of another 

 instance, also in this county, of the Hobby and Sparrowhawk pairing together in a wild state ; 

 but the birds were both shot before any eggs were produced." 



The eggs of the Hobby can generally be distinguished from those of the Kestrel at the first 

 glance, although varieties of the one species occasionally approach the eggs of the other species 

 in appearance. Hobbies' eggs are usually more yellowish in tinge than Kestrels', and very 

 rarely shade off into rufous. "We have a series now before us (out of Dresser's collection), 

 obtained in Finland and Styria, which do not vary greatly in colour and markings. In size they 

 vary from lf-§ inch by 1£§ to If j} by l^J, and have the ground-colour yellowish white, closely 

 covered with minute yellowish-red spots, and blotches distributed generally over the egg. One 

 rather richly coloured egg, procured by Dresser near Uleaborg, in Finland, has a zone of reddish 

 spots at the larger end ; and another, procured by the late Eduard Seidensacher near Cilli, 

 Styria, is altogether very rufous in colour, and is heavily blotched with pure rufous at the larger 

 end. Another variety, procured near Cilli out of a nest with two other well-marked eggs, is pure 

 white, with a few very minute reddish spots scattered over it. This egg was taken as late as the 

 30th of June. 



The general shape of the Hobby's egg is roundish oval ; but occasionally eggs elongated and 

 tapering towards the smaller end are found. 



Mi - . Howard Saunders writes to us : — 



" Our English name Hobby seems to be a corrupted pronunciation of Haut-bois, in con- 

 firmation of which I may state that a place in Norfolk, ' the Haut-bois,' is invariably called ' the 

 Hobbies.' This derivation is further confirmed by the French name, 'faucon Ilobereau,' an 

 evident corruption of ' Hautbois(r)eau,' the 'cau' being the substantive termination signifying 

 'frequenter' or 'inhabitant of,' and the 'r' having entered for the sake of euphony. And a 

 frequenter of the large woods this species most emphatically is; and no one knew this better than 

 our Norman-French ancestors, who, from their constant attention to all species available in 

 hawking, were better acquainted with the habits and characteristics of Falcons than most 

 naturalists of the present day. It is well known that the Hobby is not easily kept in confine- 

 ment for any length of time ; but I can cite a single and remarkable instance to the contrary. 

 Mr. Sabine, a friend of mine, purchased a nestling in Leadenhall Market in July or August 

 1849 ; and it only died, in the absence of the proprietor, in June 1864 ; so that it was just fifteen 

 years old. I may add that I have frequently seen and handled this identical bird." 



Latham, in the Supplement to his ' General Synopsis of Birds,' gives the Latin name of 

 Falco subbuteo major to the " Greater Hobby " mentioned in the last-named work (Gen. Syn. 

 Suppl. ii. p. 47). This is originally taken from Bechstein, and apparently refers to the Peregrine 

 Falcon, but has been applied by most authors to the Hobby, which can scarcely be said to be at 

 any time " as large as a Raven." We omit this name from our list of synonyms, not being 

 satisfied that it should really be referred to F. subbuteo. Falco pinetarius, Shaw (Gen. Zool. vii. 

 p. 195), given with a query as a synonym of F. subbuteo by Mr. G. R. Gray, is founded on the 

 " Greater Hobby " of Latham, and when that species is identified must be added as a synonym. 



