33^ THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



boldly Streaked with black, the thighs and under tail-coverts 

 orange-rufous. The bill is blue, the cere, eye-rims and legs 

 yellow, the irides brown. The thighs of the female are slightly 

 streaked. The young birds are brown above, with pale margin-; 

 to the feathers, and the under parts are washed with yellow, 

 whilst the red of the thighs and tail-coverts is pale. Male : 

 Length, 12 ins. Wing, 10 ins. Tarsus, 1*25 in. Female : 

 Length, 14 ins. Wing, 11-25 ins. Tarsus, 1*4 ins. 



Merlin. Falco (BsaJon Tunstall. 



The range of the Merlin (Plate 148) extends from Iceland 

 across north and central Europe and Asia ; northern birds 

 move south, and many winter in Mediterranean countries and 

 India. In the British Isles it is resident, and to some degree a 

 winter visitor and bird of passage. 



As the Hobby is the falcon of the southern woodlands, so the 

 Merlin or Stone-Falcon is the bird of the northern moors. As 

 a breeding species it is hardly known in the south, but from 

 North Wales, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, northward to the 

 Shetlands, and in Ireland, it nests freely wherever it is allowed. 

 Though the smallest of its group it is active and predatory, 

 lording over the lesser fowl of the uplands. In winter, when 

 most passerine birds desert the bleak moors, it is more widely 

 distributed, but never regularly haunts coverts and woods. 

 Swift on its long narrow wings it glides less than other falcons, 

 and seldom employs the wonderful downwards stoops of Pere- 

 grine or Hobby, but following every turn, twist and double of 

 its quarry, fairly flies it down. When it has gained on its 

 victim it rises above it to strike it down with its foot. From 

 several gamekeepers I have assurance that, except for picking 

 up an odd " cheeper," it does little harm to Grouse, though it 

 will, in sport, chase and stoop at an adult bird. Meadow- 

 Pipits, Wheatears and Larks are its favourite victims on the 



