280 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



THE MERLIN OR STONE-FALCON. 



MR. HARWOOD BRIERLEY says : ' ' On many of 

 our best stocked grouse moors of great extent 

 the Merlin (Falco cesalon) is commoner than 

 either sportsmen or gamekeepers suspect. I have never 

 yet seen it figure on the gamekeeper's vermin-pole, but 

 absence therefrom is no disproof of its presence on 

 heathery fells and moors with steep ghylls where much 

 common vermin is shot or trapped. 



Although the merlin never seems to become abundant 

 in any locality, it is nevertheless the principal winged 

 poacher on certain moors I could name ; and it is, in my 

 opinion, the pluckiest, most dashing, and destructive of 

 all birds of prey for its size, though I challenge a state- 

 ment that it has caused even old grouse to succumb to 

 terror and exhaustion. The ancient idea that a female 

 merlin could have all her own way with grouse, partridges, 

 plovers, starlings, larks, &c, is utterly fallacious. The 

 smaller tiercel would probably starve if his living de- 

 pended on hunting such birds, while his partner, too, has 

 usually to work so hard for her living — losing many a 

 skylark or meadow-pipit that she has singled out to make 

 the object of pursuit — that often she is compelled to 

 resort to sharp practices unbecoming a true falcon. 



Long centuries ago the skylark and kindred breeds were 

 allotted to the merlin as her special quarry, August being 

 the month most favoured for sport, and the fair sex re- 

 garding her as their special " pocket falconette," for she 

 is hardly larger than a thrush. As a trained pursuer of 

 partridges, pigeons, plover, snipe, dunlin, etc., she has 

 achieved some wonderful successes, being at any time 

 game enough to get on the track of birds far bigger than 

 herself and bring them to earth. 



Though frequently termed the ' ' blue stone hawk " our 

 merlin, is of course, a true falcon, as indicated by her 

 pointed wings as long as her tail, the notch in the upper 

 mandible of her beak, tubercle in the middle of each 



