34 CATALOGUE OF BIEDS. 



MERLIN. 



Case 44. 



Immature birds of this species are frequently met 

 with in the south, though the true home of this dash- 

 ing little hawk is evidently in the land of the heather 

 and mist. 



They are said to be very destructive to game, and 

 as such usually pay the penalty that the possession of 

 a bad name incurs. Whether it is that my own expe- 

 rience with regard to this bird has been too limited to 

 form a correct judgment I am unable to say, but I 

 hardly think that they are the desperate characters that 

 they are generally described. Those which I have seen 

 in the south were usually in pursuit of small birds, and 

 while seeking this sort of prey they are frequently 

 captured in the clap-nets that abound near Brighton. 



On the Grouse moors in the north I have examined 

 the remains of the victims that they have consumed 

 near their nests, and never found anything larger than 

 a Dunhn, which bird, with Larks, Pipits, and large 

 moths (principally of the Egger species), seemed to 

 make up their bill of fare. Though frequenting most 

 of the wild, rocky glens in the Highlands, they seem 

 to have a partiality for the more open moors, being 

 particularly numerous in the flat parts of Sutherland 

 and Caithness. 



The nest is generally placed amongst the heather 

 on the ground in the open moor. The eggs in the 

 case were, however, taken from the face of a rock 

 overhanging a hill loch in Ross-shire. 



The female was shot, but, being a good deal injured, 



