LOUD LILFORD ON BIRDS IN THE LILFORD AVIARIES. 141 
■winter, but this has often been done, and I am glad to say that my 
falconer has kept six of these very beautiful birds in good condition 
through the past winter of 1889 — 90; live of these birds were 
taken from old nests of the Black Kite in Andalucia in July last, 
and are the first of their species that I ever received alive from 
Spain, they have been, to a certain extent, allowed the use of their 
wings, and principally fed upon warm bird’s flesh in an artificial 
heat of from G0° to 75° Fahr. Wo were often waited upon by 
wild Hobbies in September whilst Partridge-shooting in North- 
amptonshire ; but I never saw one of those little Falcons fly even 
at a “squeaker,” or indeed at any bird larger than a Lark, with the 
solitary exception of a very young Turtle Dove. 
The young Hobbies haunt the neighbourhood of their nursery 
for some weeks after they are able to fly, and follow their parents 
with a continual outcry that somewhat resembles that of the 
Wryneck, and is very distinct from the harsher call of the Kestrel. 
A gamekeeper formerly in my father’s employment in Lancashire 
shot a young Hobby that kept persistently stooping at a pointer as 
she ranged a field of clover, and I know of many instances in 
which persons climbing to nests occupied by this species have been 
savagely assailed by the old birds. The Hobby, when nesting, 
will attack any largo bird that may pass in the neighbourhood ; 
and in Spain I have seen a pair of Hobbies fiercely attack a Short- 
toed Eagle and a Goshawk. 
The few specimens of that remarkable and beautiful species, 
La Marmora’s Falcon, Falco elcanonv, that I have received alive, 
have been without exception obtained from London dealers, and all 
shipped from Mogador. In character, shape, and flight they very 
closely resemble their close congener, the Hobby, but are less able, 
as may well be supposed, to resist our English climate than that 
summer visitor to our country. I had the good fortune, in May, 
1874, to visit the islets of Toro and Vacca upon which La Marmora 
discovered this species ; these rocks, for they are little more, lie off 
the south-western point of the island of Sardinia. At the time of 
our visit they were tenanted by very large numbers of these 
Falcons, who had not commenced to lay, in fact we were assured 
by some Neapolitan coral-fishers that no young birds were to be 
found till September, at which season these fishermen annually 
take them in great numbers as food. This statement is in some 
