24 THE MERLIN. 



This species usually places its nest on the ground 

 amongst heather, on the sloping side of some rocky ravine. 

 In May 1865 Mr. William Cowe showed me a spot of this 

 kind on the farm of Dowlaw, 



In a glen 

 Down wliich a little stream had furrowed deep, 



and told me that he had found the eggs there in the pre- 

 vious summer. Mr. Kelly mentions that it breeds on the 

 rugged, heathery braes at Broadshawrig ; ^ and the Eev. 

 George Cook, Longformacus, informs me that he lately saw 

 an egg which had been found on the moor above Byrecleugh. 

 Very few materials are used in the construction of the nest, 

 the eggs, which are four or five in number, and reddish 

 brown in colour, like those of the Kestrel, generally resting 

 on a little dried grass or a few pieces of heather. 



A ravine near the Meikle Law, in the parish of Long- 

 formacus, is called the Merlin Grain. 



1 Hisf. Ber. JVat. Club, vol. viii. p. 146. 



