15G 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1S68. 



are longer than those that follow, and one especially 

 attains a length and diameter little short of double 

 that of the greater part of those towards the lower 

 cud. Found near Berlin, among Algae. 



THE MERLIN 



(Hi/potriorchis (csaloii). 



n^HE above engraving presents us with a faithful 

 -*- portrait of the Merlin, taken from a very fine 

 old male. The Merlin is the smallest falcon met 

 with in Great Britain, being more universally dis- 

 tributed in the winter. I have several specimens 

 in my own collection, amongst which are two killed 

 in this country,— one a young male, from Mr. S. 

 Carter's collection, and the other a very fine old 

 female, shot in January, I860. My other specimens 

 are from the Southern Volga, whence we have 

 received of late years large collections from Herr E. 

 Moeschler. The bird would appear to be tolerably 

 common there, but I have unfortunately not got 

 his paper published in " Naumannia " near me to 

 look into, so I must content myself with giving the 

 following note out of Demidolf's " Voyage dans la 

 Ilussie meridionale," to which little-known work I 

 have before had occasion to refer. This work 

 contains very full notices of the birds met by him 

 in South Russia and the Crimea, and will be found 

 very interesting, as containing many valuable notes 

 on the habits of several rare visitants to this 

 country, which are common in the above-mentioned 

 localities. He says that the present species is 

 "common in all the provinces of South Russia, 

 whence it only disappears in winter for a short 

 time. I have seen, as late as the middle of February 

 even, five or six together perched on the summit of 

 the trees, but I never met with a single instance of 

 its building in our steppes. The young are found 

 in great numbers at the period of migration, in the 

 months of October, November, and December, and 

 one sees flights of them in the gardens as well as in 

 the steppes. This bird keeps all the time of its 

 accidental sojourn the place which it has once 

 occupied. It is moreover easily recognizable by 

 the manner in which, in the evening, it falls through 

 the air like a thunderbolt, without the aid of its 

 wings." 



As we see from the above that South Russia 

 does not form the habitual] breeding-place of the 

 Merlin, it will be interesting to consider the testi- 

 mony of ornithologists on this point. That it occa- 

 sionally breeds in Great Britain is well known. 

 Last year some specimens of hawks' eggs taken on 

 the ground near Ongar Wood, Essex, were brought 

 to me as Merlins', and have been pronounced by 

 competent judges to be the eggs of this species. 

 Mr. J. II. Gnrney, undoubtedly the first living 



authority on the "Raptores," tells me that the 

 occurrence of a Merlin's nest so far south is ii - 

 teresting, aud he never heard of one breeding there 

 before, though he believes it breeds in Wales. I 

 should add that Mr. Davy, of the Kentish-Town 

 Road, from whom I purchased the eggs, tells 'me 

 that he received a nest of young Merlins from the 

 same neighbourhood about ten years ago. No 

 instance has apparently occurred of the breeding of 

 the Merlin in Norfolk, where Mr. Stevenson records 

 it as a winter visitant. He remarks : " Several of 

 these little hawks were observed in different parts 

 of the county during the intense frosts in the 

 winter of 1SG0-1, but apparently the only specimen 

 obtained was a fine male, killed at Shottesham, on 

 the 16th of January. In the following winter, 

 however, of 1S61-2, when the weather was almost 

 equally severe, an adult pair were killed in January 

 at Merton, and a female, also adult, about the same 

 time at Marsham." In the winter, Mr. Briggs tells 

 me, he used to meet with the Merlin at Billing- 

 bear Park, and shot several during his residence 

 there. 



The following remarks are taken from Professor 

 Newton's " Ootheca Wolleyana." Speaking of the 

 series of eggs in the late Mr. Wolley's collection, 

 he says : " There are not many specimens in it, 

 which, taken singly, could be pronounced from their 

 appearance alone to be certainly Merlins' ; but 

 taken as a whole, a purple tint is seen to be pre- 

 valent, which is not discernible in the series of 

 Kestrels' eggs lying in the same drawer, while the 

 average size of these latter is also greater. It will 

 be seen that the Merlin is also one of those birds of 

 prey which are not constant in the choice of a 

 locality for their nests, sometimes breeding (as in 

 the British islands is, I believe, the usual habit) on 

 the ground, at others in trees." The following 

 remark of Mr. Wolley's is interesting, and I there- 

 fore extract it. With reference to six eggs taken in 

 Sutherlandshire in 1852, he writes: "I received 

 these beautiful eggs from one of the men who accom- 

 panied me when I was there, who says, 'the male 

 was one of the wickedest I ever saw. It was like 

 to pick out my eyes when going to the nest, and 

 convoyed me about a mile on my way home. The 

 nest was among the heather.' He also adds that it 

 was about the size of a thrush ; and from his 

 description of the bird, and from the situation of 

 the nest, there can be no doubt it was a Merlin. I 

 am not sure I ever saw this bird whilst I was in 

 Sutherlandshire, but I heard the nest of one 

 described. It certainly is not common there. I 

 think the partial colouring of these eggs remarkably 

 fine." Mr. Wolley's collection also contained a 

 series of Merlins' eggs found in Lapland and in East 

 and West Bothnia. 



Mr. Gould, who has given a magnificent illus- 

 tration of this species in his " Birds of Great 



