MERLIN 



163 



red of the legs, the same colour obtainhig on the bare skin at the base 

 of the beak, although the eyes are light brown. The female, which 

 measures 12^ inches in length (against 11 in the male), has the 

 head and neck chestnut, the remainder of the upper-parts slaty-grey 

 with dark bars, and the under-parts rusty red inclining to buff on the 

 tail-coverts ; the colours of the bare parts being the same as in the 

 male. In young birds the crown 

 of the head is pale chestnut, the 

 upper-parts are tinged with red- 

 dish brown, the forehead and 

 throat white, and the under-parts 

 rufous streaked with drop-like 

 markings ; the bare parts being 

 reddish yellow. 



From the evidence afforded 

 by this species there can be little 

 doubt that the grey tint of adult 

 falcons and hawks generally is 

 a permanent breeding- plumage, 

 which has been acquired by both 

 sexes ; the female in the present 

 genus being in the course of 

 acquiring this special dress. 



The summer home of the red- 

 footed falcon is Russia and other 

 parts of eastern Europe, as well 

 as western Siberia. Stragglers 



reach Finland and the south of Sweden from time to time, while others 

 visit the eastern coasts of Great Britain, and in some instances spread 

 farther over the islands, a single example having been recorded in 

 1882 from Ireland. Nearly all these wanderers occur in spring and 

 summer, and not during the winter-migration, when this species wends 

 its way in thousands to South Africa. About thirty instances of the 

 occurrence of this falcon in the British Isles were recorded up to the 

 end of last century, several of these including two or more individuals. 



KED-FUOTEIJ FALCON. 



Merlin ^^^ ^^y ^^ inferred from the remarks made in 



(iEsalon reffulus) connection with some of the foregoing members of 



the group, considerable diversity of view obtains 



among ornithologists with regard to the classification of the falcons. 



This diversity is most strongly noticeable in the case of the merlin, or 



