366 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



correspondents, and is of frequent occurrence in many parts of the 

 West Riding. 



This dashing little falcon breeds sparingly on most of our 

 high moorlands, depositing its eggs among the heather and 

 showing a strong predilection for the vicinity of boulders, 

 on which it loves to rest. On gth May 1877 a nest was found 

 on the Ilkley Moors ; the old male being first observed sitting 

 on a stone post, which on approach he quitted, and flying low 

 over the heather put the female off her nest. The nest, 

 which contained four eggs, was merely a slight depression 

 lined with and surrounded by burnt heather stems. H, 

 Smurthwaite of Richmond mentioned in Morris's " Naturalist " 

 (1854, P- So), that he once heard of a nest being found in the 

 centre of a field of young wheat — a most unusual occurrence. 



As illustrating the partiality of these birds to certain nesting 

 localities, Mr. W. Morris of Sedbergh writes that about 1890 a 

 gamekeeper killed a pair of breeding Merlins, but did not destroy 

 the eggs ; these were found by my informant, the following 

 year, in the nest together with a fresh clutch of four eggs. 



In the year 1899 a pair of Merlins selected a very unusual 

 position for their nest in a remote part of Scugdale, in Cleve- 

 land, the site chosen being in a tree, where both birds were 

 o >served. 



The Merlin breeds in the following localities : — On the high 

 moors of the Pennine Range it is reported from the neighbour- 

 hood of Sheffield (for an interesting and lengthy account of 

 its breeding in this district, from the pen of Henry Seebohm, 

 consult " Dresser's Birds of Europe," part 38), Penistone, 

 Hebden Bridge, Halifax and Haworth, and from the Fells 

 of Langden, Waddington, and Grindleton. In Craven and 

 the district known as " The Dales," it nests on the moorlands 

 above Ilkley, Barden, Pateley Bridge (now very rarely), Ley- 

 burn, Bedale, Masham, Ripon, Richmond, Barnard Castle, 

 and Upper Teesdale, In the north-east it affects the Cleve- 

 land Hills and the moors above Whitby and Scarborough. 

 The late Canon Atkinson stated in 1880 that it used to be 

 common on Danby Moor, but had then become very scarce. In 

 Arkengarthdale and Swaledale, and on the Bowes and Scargill 



