FALCO SUBBUTEO, Linn.
Hobby.

Falco subbuteo, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. Deelore
— Barletta, Daud. Traité d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 129.
- subbuteo major, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl., p. 10.
—— hirundinum, Brehm, Isis, 1832, p. 740.
— (Hypotriorchis) subbuteo, Kaup, Classif. der Saug. und Vog., p. 111.
Dendrofalco, Briss. Orn., tom. i. DamSiion

 

Hypotriorchis subbuteo, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 976.
Dendrofalco subbuteo, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of inden mse
Hypotriorches subbuteo, Blas. List of Birds of Eur., Engl. edit. p. 4.

 

Ir an ornithologist were requested to name the most elegant species of Falcon inhabiting the British Islands,
he would unquestionably reply, the Hobby; for the proportions of no other raptorial bird are more evenly
balanced, or the colours more harmoniously distributed. — Its long, pointed wings indicate that its powers of
flight are fully adequate to the performance of the lengthened journeys it makes from one country to another,
and to enable it to overtake the Snipe, the Lark, and other swift-flying birds: it is true that its legs are not
so strong, or its hind claws so powerful, as those of the Peregrine ; but they are amply sufficient for the
seizure of the small-sized species upon which it chiefly preys. Unlike the little dashing Merlin, which
frequents the northern portions of this country, the Hobby affects the open fields and champaign parts of our
southern districts, and evinces a preference for the woodlands. It differs from the Merlin also in the nature
of its food; for, while it does not hesitate to give chase to the Snipe and the Plover, or to harry over the
fields in pursuit of the Lark, it lives much upon insects. The dragonfly of the water-side is not free from
its attacks by day, nor the hard-winged chaffer, which buzzes round the chestnut-blossoms, in the evening.
In the capture of the latter insect, its movements are most graceful, and strongly remind one of those of the
Nightjar. To carry the comparison between the Hobby and the Merlin still further, I may state that one is
a migrant, the other is not; and to make the matter more clear, the former is a bird of the south, coming
to the central parts of England in the spring, and departing again in the autumn, while the other dwells
more exclusively in the north: further still with the comparison, the Hobby nests in trees, and the Merlin
generally on the ground.

The counties of England most favoured with the presence of the Hobby are Devonshire, Dorsetshire;
Hants, Sussex, and Oxfordshire ; it does, however, occasionally frequent all the midland counties to York-
shire and Durham, beyond which it is seldom seen. It is considered a rare bird in the sister kingdom of
Ireland, only one or two instances of its occurrence there being recorded.

The Hobby, as I bave said, is a migrant to our islands, and these islands appear to be the extreme
verge of its eestenn range; on the continent of Europe it is abundant in Spain, Italy, Hrcuce, and Germany,
north of which its numbers become gradually less. In all of these, as with us, it is a summer visitant,
proceeding south in winter. Captain Loche informs us that it as ee three provinces of Algeria,
where other species of this particular form also occur, such as the Falco a and the F. conan
these, with the present bird, have been distinguished by a separate generic title—that of Hypotriorchis.
Eastward the Hobby extends from North Africa, through Persia, to India, where Mr. Jerdon states it is a
winter visitant, but is not very common: he has killed it near Jalna, and it has been taken at Calcutta and
in various parts of the Himalayas ; there, as in this country, it preys upon Larks and other small birds,
and not unfrequently upon insects. The one procured a Mr. Jerdon near Jalna had its stomach
crammed with dragonflies, which he had seen it hawking for over a tank just after sunset ; he adds that
it does not breed in India. : ae ;

M. Bailly, in his ‘Ornithologie de la Savoie,’ states that the Hobby dvells in the forests of a ¥ a it
builds in the highest trees or in the cleft of a rock in the neighbourhood. Toe nest 1s ae i a
and is formed of the same materials as that of the Peregrine : by the end of the month, the full comp a
of eggs is laid; they are four or five in number, of a dirty we covered with ee de cae
about 1 inch 8 lines in length, by 1 inch 4 lines in breadth. The young are ae ee ae Bee
days, and are then entirely covered with a unas down; they remain in the vicinity o . nes ee

: ae ‘othe parents bring them food and teach them to fly. In autumn, with the first
month, during which time the parents bring : 7 anereee OVed Thicmolaine ‘fcularl
Thrushes, the Hobby abandons the mountains, and disperses over the plains, particularly

migration of the ; . irds fly towards the
a At times, especially in the morning, the old birds fly towards the

se which are studded with small hills. "
Re : hunt the Lark, the Wagtail, and the Swallow. It does not fear to follow the sportsman, and will
elds to hunt ark, ag tail,