Hobby - 1894

Falco subbuteo

A summer visitor; rare; also seen in autumn when on passage.

There are but few records of the Hobby, but it has probably sometimes occurred undetected. Sir Hugh Owen saw one at Goodwick in 187 1, and writes to us : " Can't mistake a Hobby with his black-brown back, cream-coloured breast, and great length of wing, like a gigantic Swift." One shot at Dale, October 3rd, 1888, was brought to Jeffreys, the bird-stuffer, in Haverfordwest ; another, at about the same date, was obtained at the Rhysgwyllt, Letterston.

The Hobby, being quite a bird of the woods, would not often be expected in such a bare and generally treeless county as Pembrokeshire.

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands