3-!-=> THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



the edge. I have known the nest amongst the marram on the 

 sand-dunes and under a tussock in a deep inland bog. Rarely, 

 the Merlin nests in a tree. I have seen an old Crow's nest, 

 fifteen or twent}- feet up in a tree, from which the hen was shot 

 and the eggs taken. Year after year, even when the nest has 

 been disturbed, a pair will return to the same spot, even to the 

 original " scrape " if it can be recognised. Not far from the 

 nest is the look-out, a rocky* outcrop or boulder, a post, wall or 

 grassy mound ; this, too, is often the slaughter-house or 

 shambles, streaked with blood-stains and surrounded by 

 feathers and bones of the carcases plucked and prepared for 

 the young. The eggs are laid in May, usually in the second 

 half. Four is the ordinary number, though five is not un- 

 common, and many nests only contain three. They are much 

 like those of the Hobby and the denser spotted eggs of the 

 Kestrel, and are usually closely freckled with reddish-brown 

 and almost black spots (Plate 158}. 



For a very short time the newly hatched young are quiet 

 fluffy white weaklings with ivon% pink-tinted beaks, but they 

 rapidly gain courage and ferocity (Plate 149), and whilst still too 

 feeble to sit up will throw themselves on their backs in resent- 

 ment at familiarities, defending themselves with beak and claw. 

 Even when just out of the egg they will call, a whispered echo 

 of their parents' angr>' ^I'k, kik^ kik, and before the pink flesh 

 is hidden by the thickening greyish down will scream defiance, 

 as sho^^'n on Plate 149. When the first dark grey feathers, 

 spotted with yellowish brown, replace the down and the bill is 

 blue and cere already faintly yellow, they will, though still too 

 weak to walk, fight gamely if handled. 



The adult male has the upper parts slate-blue with fine 

 black shaft streaks, and the under rufous with broader striations ; 

 the tail is barred with black, a broad band near the white tip. 

 The bill is blue, the cere, eye-rims and legs yellov.', the irides 

 dark brown. The female is brown, has pale margins to the 



