76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



nearest neighbour of the same species. In the spring of 1869 I 

 knew of an authentic instance, in which the tercel procured a 

 second falcon witliin two days and a-half (it may have been a 

 much shorter time) of that on which he was deprived of his first. 

 About the same time the falcon of another pair, from an eyrie 

 about five miles' distant, went amissing ; and there is every 

 reason to believe that it had not been shot or otherwise destroyed, 

 but had supplied the place of the slain falcon in the above tercel's 

 aff'ections. In a country where there are few Peregrines a longer 

 time would probably be taken to secure a second partner ; but 

 where there are, say, from eight to ten eyries not very far removed 

 from one another, there is nothing so very remarkable in the rapid 

 advent of a substitute, though of course, in order to obtain another 

 partner, the Peregrine would have to conquer a rival in battle. 



MERLIN. 



HYPOTRIORCHIS AESALON (GmeUn). 



This is a plentifully-distributed species in the county, especially 

 in the west, though the late Mr John Wolley " was not sure that 

 he ever saw this ,bird whilst he was in Sutherland," and adds, "it 

 certainly was not common there," though he heard of its nesting, 

 and afterwards obtained a laying of the unusual number of six eggs.* 

 This was in the year 1852. I can hardly think that such a compara- 

 tively common bird, as the Merlin now is in Sutherland, could, if 

 equally plentiful at that time, have escaped the notice of such an 

 observer as Mr Wolley. I believe that it was, as he remarks, 

 " certainly not common there " at that time, and that it has within 

 the last twenty years or so spread northwards, as the Sparrow 

 Hawk is now doing in the same county. It must now at least 

 be considered as certainly one of the commonest birds of prey 

 in Sutherland, and is well known to the inhabitants of the west. 

 In the north, however, whence, I believe, Mr Wolley obtained 

 his laying of six eggs, there exists in the minds of the inhabi- 

 tants a certain amount of confusion between the Merlin and the 

 Kestrel, as is proved by a correspondence I had with a person 

 there, regarding six eggs which were sent to me as tliose of a 

 IMerlin, but which, as I had suspected, were a Kestrel's, and were 

 taken from " the face of a green rock," a position never chosen by 



* Oolhcca Wolhyana, Part i., p. U»5. 



