76 FALCONID.E. 



tlirougliout Norway, and the northern part of Sweden, as 

 well as in Finland. Thence it ranges across Russia and 

 Siberia, to the Sea of Ochotsk, where Dr. von Middendorff 

 found it breeding, but it is said not to be very numerous in 

 Eastern Siberia, and the specimens described thence by Herr 

 Radde diftered slightly from European ones. It does not 

 seem to have been observed in Japan, but Mr. Swinhoe has 

 met with it several times in China. In India it visits the 

 Punjaub, and upper portions of the North-west Provinces in 

 the cold weather, and Mr. Jerdon says it is trained to fly at 

 the Hoopoe, and also at Quails. It has been found at 

 Erzeroum, and was obtained in winter at Smyrna by the late 

 Mr. H. E. Strickland. In Palestine it is not uncommon at 

 the same season, as is also the case in Egypt. Dr. Hart- 

 mann found it in northern Nubia, and the Leyden Museum 

 possess a specimen from Khartoum. Loche records it as 

 breeding in Algeria, but the statement seems open to doubt. 

 It occurs, generally at the season of migration, in most, if 

 not all, of the principal islands of the Mediterranean, and is 

 not uncommon in winter in Spain. Throughout Europe it 

 is pretty universally distributed, but the southern limits of 

 its breeding-range cannot at present be accurately defined. 



The Merlin makes its scanty nest on the ground, in rocks, 

 or occupies that of some other bird in a tree. The first is 

 the mode it usually follows in Britain, but in Lapland the 

 last is as commonly its practice. It lays from four to six 

 eggs, which are sometimes uniformly sufl'used with a deep 

 brick-red, often varied, however, by mottling of a darker 

 shade, a slight purple tint pervading the whole. Very beau- 

 tiful varieties are occasionally seen ; a nest of six from 

 Sutherland, in the Wolley Collection, are thickly blotched 

 with crimson-red on a white ground, while another is of a 

 cream-colour, j^artially blotched with purplish-red and violet. 

 They measure from 1-6 to I'-iS by 1*24 to 1-15 in. 



The Merlin measures from ten to twelve inches in length, 

 according to the sex. An old male has the beak bluish horn- 

 colour, palest at the base, darkest towards the tip ; the cere 

 yellow, the irides dark brown ; the top of the head blue- 



