92 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the edge of the industrial districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and 

 the numerous tall factory chimneys, which disfigure the valleys, make 

 the place look most unlikely as a breeding haunt for a falcon, yet it 

 is here that the merlin has found sanctuary, and it is from these un- 

 promising-looking surroundings that the annual output of young 

 birds moves south every year to return to the historic sites on the 

 grouse moors, where so many of their relatives have died. There is 

 no part of the British Isles where merlins may be found nesting in 

 fair numbers in such restricted areas, as this "no man's land." 



South of the Trent the merlin is only an autumn and winter visitor 

 to the midland and southern counties, except among the hills of Wales 

 and on Exmoor. Here a certain degree of variation in the breeding 

 site begins to be apparent. In the northern part of its breeding range 

 there are no trees, and it must breed among the heather or on the 

 rocks. There are a few cases on record in Scotland and northern 

 England where it has bred in an old nest of a hooded or carrion crow, 

 but in Wales this habit becomes quite common, and on Exmoor the 

 pair or two that still breed prefer to use an old nest in a tree or strag- 

 gling hedge. Another site adopted by Welsh merlins is among 

 sand dunes overgrown with marram grass. Here in a little cup 

 scratched out in the sand and lined with grass, the merlin has found a 

 new type of nesting place. 



Courtship. — Little is on record on the coursthip of the merlin, but 

 like so many other Accipiters, both male and female describe aerial 

 evolutions high in the air over the nesting site at the beginning of the 

 breeding season and especially on warm sunny days. At other times 

 the merlin does not fly high. William Rowan (1921-22), who has 

 described the breeding of the merlin on the Yorkshire moors very 

 fully, did not observe any aerial courtship but suggests that the feed- 

 ing of the female by the male at the nest site may be part of the cere- 

 mony and is frequently followed by sexual union. 



Nest. — In the foregoing remarks something has already been said 

 as to the different types of sites adopted by the merlin in different 

 surroundings. Little actual nest is made. When in heather or on 

 rocks it is little more than a hollow in the ground with a few heather 

 twigs artlessly arranged, but grasses may be pressed down if already 

 present. When an old nest of some other species, crow or raven, is 

 used, practically nothing is added to it. On the sand dunes the 

 marram grass is formed into quite a passable nest. Rowan (1921-22) 

 noted that, during the early stages of incubation, the bird would 

 break off twigs from heather within reach and add them to the nest. 

 He also noted bits of bracken in a nest when a patch was within easy 

 reach. 



A very extraordinary site is recorded by Nordling from Finland, in a 

 weatherworn and old hole of a woodpecker in a tree. In the wooded 



