ACCIPITRES. ( 21 ) FALCONIDM. 



THE MERLIN. 



STONE FALCON, KOCK HAWK, SMALL BLUE HAWK. 



Falco cesalon. 



Saving- there came a little gray Hawke, 



A Merlin him they call. 

 Which untill the grounde did strike the grype, 



That dead he downe did fall. 



Percy, Sir Aldingar. 



This beautiful little Falcon is occasionally seen throughout 

 the lower parts of the county in the autumn and winter 

 months, and its nest is sometimes found during summer in 

 the rocky deans of the Lammermuirs. 



At the second anniversary meeting of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club, which took place at Duns on the 18 th of 

 September 1833, the Eev. Andrew Baird of Cockburnspath 

 mentioned in his presidential address that a Merlin had 

 been shot at Blanerne, on the Whitadder ; ^ and Dr. John- 

 ston of Berwick, writing on the 24th of April 1847, says: 

 " To-day Mr. William Dunlop brought me a specimen of 

 the male Merlin which he had shot on the moor above 

 Mayfield on the 22nd inst. On the previous day he saw 

 the bird strike down a Partridge." ^ In the spring of 1872 

 a young male was killed in the Crow Dean "Wood at Paxton ; 

 and in February of the following year a male in full plumage 

 was shot in the adjoining plantation of Finchy.^ According 

 to Mr. Andrew Kelly, it is by no means rare in the Lauder- 

 dale district. A young female was trapped by the game- 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club., vol. i. p. 14. 



- Ibid. vol. ii. p. 220. » Ibid. vol. vii. p. 379. 



