351 
VI. 
TIIK NESTING OF THE IIOBEY. 
15y Frank Nouoate. 
(Communicfttcd by tlio President.) 
Read ^isi January, 1882. 
For many years pa.st I liavo carefully searched for ami examined 
almost every nest I could find, of Garrion Crow and Kestrel, 
almost .lespairing of over taking a clutch of Hobby’s eggs in’ 
Norfolk. Two eggs I obtained through ^Ir. Knights (of Nomich), 
who showed mo a stuffed Hobby, said to have been killed from 
the nest whence these eggs Averc taken, in Kettoringham 'Wood, 
by ]\Ir. G. Cooke in July, 1858. I wrote to him some years after 
ho loft ]\fr. Knights, when ho was living in Shrewsbury, and ho 
confirmed this account. I still possess those two Hobby’s eggs. 
A few years ago Mr. Robert Howard of Taverham showed me 
a splendid pair of stuffed Hobbies, which ho killed from a nest 
in Foxloy Wood. 
On the 9th of March, 183G, Mr. J. Howard gave mo a Hobby 
(a hon-bird) which he shot six days previously at or near Bylaugh. 
I always like to re-visit all Crows’ and Kestrels’ nests about once 
a Aveok throughout the summer, and frequently I find, at internals 
two or more clutches of Crow’s and Kestrel’s eggs in one nest in 
one season. 
On the 21st of !May, 1881, in Foxley Wood, I took a clutch of 
five Hobby’s eggs, and several breast-feathers from a Carrion Crow’s 
nest which I had (about a month before) robbed of Crow’s eggs. I 
saw the Hobby fly from this nest. The tAvo Hobbies kept 'bailing 
about OA'erhead Avhilst I packed the eggs, and walked to another 
Oak tree containing another Carrion CroAv’s nest, Avhich I had 
robbed on the 2.3rd of last April of three Crow’s eggs. I now saw 
a hen Kestrel fly from this nest, and she looked nearly twice as 
large as either of the Hobbies. I found and left four Kestrel’s 
eggs in this nest. 
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