142 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



loves, for when disturbed the bird will often fly along 

 close under a wall as just described. 



By this method of hunting the merlin surprises its 

 quarry, snatching it up immediately it rises, or even 

 plucking it from the ground. I have seen the titlarks 

 rise like chaff from the bent, every lark screaming murder, 

 as a merlin appeared like a flash over the wall top. 



This little hawk is not of the soaring and hovering 

 variety. One seldom sees it at any considerable height. 

 In the mating season the peregrine mounts to the upper- 

 most heavens, performing the most marvellous evolutions 

 in the air, and finally descending like a thunderbolt as 

 though he would pound himself into a pulp among the 

 crags below, but I have never seen a merlin do this sort 

 of thing. I have, however, watched their courtship. 

 While the hen bird is perched somewhere, the tercel 

 flies round and round generally at an altitude of about 

 one hundred feet, his wings quivering in a manner of 

 flight peculiar to the season, and uttering constantly as 

 he flies his thin-edged ** kee-kee-kee." So rapidly are 

 the notes uttered, indeed, that one might think that his 

 wings and his vocal chords were interconnected ! Also I 

 have seen male and female flying together in the very 

 early spring so high as to be almost out of sight, though 

 the male was visibly smaller. They flew and circled 

 much like swifts, working steadily out of sight and 

 travelling at enormous speed. 



Reverting to this bird following in its flight some 

 distinct feature of the landscape. Some time ago, in a 

 corrie of the Galloway Highlands, I put up a merlin from 

 a briar growing at the edge of the abandoned cart track I 

 was following. The little hawk rose almost at my feet, 

 carrying a squirrel, and flew rapidly ahead of me, 

 following every twist and turn of the wheel rut, till finally 

 it alighted about eighty yards ahead, diving again into 



