MERLIN. 339 



moor, but it will kill so large a bird as Thrush, Snipe and even 

 Lapwing. One Merlin, hot in pursuit of a Pipit, passed so 

 close as to almost brush my head, over-shooting its quarry 

 when it dropped, but doubling again and finally knocking it 

 over ; though I was near, it picked up and carried off the still 

 struggling bird. I have seen it follow and stoop at but miss a 

 Sand-Martin, selected from a crowd of twittering birds ; in an 

 instant the Martins dispersed in all directions with a noticeable 

 hush. On the coast I have seen it put up and dash into a 

 dense cloud of Knots, Dunlins and other waders, single out its 

 quarry and follow it relentlessly as it dodged close above the 

 waves. Fearlessly it assaults any large bird that ventures near 

 its nest, driving the cowardly Crow and Black-headed Gull 

 away; I have witnessed bold attacks on Short-eared Owl and 

 Peregrine, and once a pair of birds harried a passing Heron 

 until it squawked in terror. Beetles and moths, especially the 

 large-bodied oak-eggar, so common amongst the ling, are 

 eaten, the latter captured on the wing. The call of anger and 

 alarm has much in common with that of the Peregrine, a 

 hurried shrill kik^ kik, ik-ik-ik-ik, but when a pair, with many 

 aerial gymnastics, sport together the cry loses its ferocious 

 tone. Mr. S. G. Cummings writes it — keir, kei}% keir, heigh, 

 chup, heigh chitp, and under similar circumstances I have 

 heard a note which reminded me of the chip-per, chip-per of 

 the Snipe. 



On the moors the Merlin nests amongst the heather or 

 coarse upland grasses, making no real nest, but laying its eggs 

 in a hollow scraped in the ground or a depression amongst the 

 vegetation \ at times it is fully exposed, though often screened 

 by ling or crowberry. The bird is not confined to the hills, but 

 haunts the coast and low-lying marshes. On the Welsh coast 

 it nests on the cliffs, often at the top, where the ground is flat, 

 and frequently close to a turf bank or wall, but sometimes on a 

 ledge in a gorge or on the grassy slope some distance below 



