ARGENTINE HOBBY 55 



ARGENTINE HOBBY 



Falco fttsco-cxndescem 



Above dull slatey black> rump variegated with white ; superdliaries 

 prolonged and meeting behind, rufous ; beneath throat and breast 

 pale cinnamon with black shaft-stripes on the breast; belly black 

 with white transverse lines ; wing^ and tail blackish with transverse 

 white bars ; bill yellow tipped with black, feet orange ; length 13.5, 

 wing 10 indies. Female similar but larger. 



The Orange-chested Hobby is found throughout 

 South and Central America, but the form met with 

 here differs, to some extent, in habits from its repre- 

 sentatives of the hotter region. It is a Patagonian 

 bird, the most common Falcon in that country, and 

 is migratory, wintering in the southern and central 

 Argentine provinces. In its winter home it is solitary, 

 and fond of hovering about farmhouses, where it 

 sits on a tree or post and looks out for its prey. Com- 

 pared with the Peregrine it h^ a poor spirit, and 

 I have often watched it give chase to a bird, and 

 just when it seemed about to grasp its prey, give up 

 the pursuit and slink ingloriously away. It never 

 boldly and openly attacks any bird, except of the 

 smallest species, and prefers to perch on an elevation 

 from which it can dart down suddenly and take its 

 prey by surprise. 



The nest is a slovenly structure of sticks on a 

 thorny bush or tree. The eggs, which I have not 

 seen, Darwin describes as follows : *' Surface rough 

 with white projecting points ; colour nearly uni- 

 form dirty wood-brown ; general appearance as if 

 it had been rubbed in brown mud." 



