IV FALCONIDAE 177 
deposited late in the season in disused birds’ nests. The state- 
ment that it broods on the eggs of the Kestrel needs further 
proof. HH. eleonorae, the largest Old World species of the genus, 
occupying the Mediterranean basin from Spain and the Atlas 
to the Levant, while straying to Mauritius, is uniform sooty- 
black; but some individuals never become sooty, and immature 
examples precisely resemble the Hobby. The habits are like those 
of its congener, but the two or three eggs are larger, and are laid 
in holes in cliffs, or upon the bare soil on stony flats of desolate 
islands. The very similar //. concolor ranges from the Red Sea to 
Madagascar ; /Z. cwviert inhabits the Ethiopian Region ; /7. ophryo- 
phanes is described from Colonia; /H. severus extends from India 
and Ceylon to New Britain, but not to Austraha; ZZ. lunulatus from 
Flores to the Duke of York Island, with Australia and Tasmania ; 
Hf. fusco-caerulescens and Hf. rufigularis from Mexico to Argentina, 
the former moreover reaching the southern United States and 
Patagonia. The powerful H. dirolewcus—perhaps referable to the 
genus Halco—occurs from South Mexico to Peru and Brazil. 
Aesalon regulus, the Merlin, called the Stone-Falcon from 
its habit of perching on rocks, is a lively and interesting 
little species, darimg yet confiding, which preys chiefly upon 
small birds, and flies less swiftly than the Hobby, though both 
are used for Lark-hawking. The shrill note is chiefly heard at 
the breeding-quarters, which in Britain are generally on steep 
hill-slopes, especially where stony outcrops break the heather or 
grass; from four to six eggs—duller and less blotched than those of 
the Kestrel, being deposited in a hole scraped in the bare ground. 
Abroad—-and exceptionally in Scotland—old nests in trees or rocky 
ledges are utilized, and the bird is perhaps occasionally its own 
architect. Fairly common north of Derbyshire its summer range 
extends over the moorlands from Shetland to Devonshire, and 
includes Ireland, while it visits the sea-coast inautumn. It occurs 
accidentally in Greenland, and reaches thence to the Pyrenees and 
the Alps, being found across Northern and Central Europe and 
Asia, and migrating to North Africa, North India, and South 
China. The male is slaty-blue with rusty nape and under 
surface, and is streaked with dusky throughout; the throat is 
white, as is the tip of the tail, which, besides six imperfect bars, 
shows a broad sub-terminal black band. The dark brown female 
has the lower parts white, the rectrices exhibiting eight light 
VOL, IX N 
