HOBBY. 45 



eggs, which, like other Hawks, are hatched in three weeks. 

 The young are fed with small birds and insects, and remain 

 for some time in the neighbourhood of the nest. Sometimes 

 the young are seen catching the grasshoppers that make their 

 appearance among the tops of the long grass ; and when old 

 enough to fly they follow their parents to the field. 



This courageous and docile little Hawk may be trained to 

 catch quails, larks, and other small birds. In confinement it 

 becomes very tame : it requires to be carefully kept during 

 the winter, to protect it from the rigours of the climate, not 

 suited by nature to the delicacy of its frame. Hobbies, from 

 their shyness in a wild state, are difficult to approach, but 

 they may sometimes be shot when in the ardour of pursuit 

 they venture, as before mentioned, too near the sportsman, 

 whose dogs they are following in order to share in the started 

 game. 



The note of the Hobby resembles somewhat the call of the 

 Wryneck, and in the spring may occasionally be heard. 



The Hobby represented in the plate is a male bird in 

 adult plumage. When very old this bird is said to lose 

 entirely the dusky spots upon the thighs and under tail- 

 coverts, those parts acquiring a fine plain rust colour ; at 

 which age the upper parts of the plumage become steel blue, 

 without any bordering to the feathers. 



The full grown male bird is about twelve inches in length ; 

 the tail, whose feathers are of equal length, measures about 

 six inches : the wings, when closed, reach beyond the tip of 

 the tail. 



The beak is blue, tipped with black, short, and sharp 

 pointed, and measures seven lines in diameter, and nine lines 

 in the arc ; the cere, eyelids, and feet are yellow ; the iris is 

 chestnut brown. The tarsi are short, measuring about an 

 inch and a half, and feathered below the knee ; the toes are 

 long and slender. 



