140 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
undoubtedly do just beyond the Staffordshire border ; 
and ‘Peregrine, who resided at Forest Chapel, states 
in one of his articles on Falconry, written in 1859, that 
the bird occasionally breeds in Cheshire. 
Brockholes describes the Merlin as a spring and 
autumn visitor to Wirral, and adds that a few birds 
remain through the winter in the Dee Marshes, where 
they sometimes prey upon the Ring Doves which feed 
there ;? whilst Mr. R. Newstead says that the bird is 
occasionally met with in winter in the marshes of the 
Mersey Estuary near Thornton and Ince.® 
Examples, chiefly in immature plumage, are obtained 
from time to time during the winter months on the 
Plain; and we have seen an adult female which was 
shot in the water-meadows near Sale on October 3rd, 
1896. It is not improbable that the Merlin used to 
nest on the extensive mosses in the north of the county 
before their reclamation. On May 5th, 1883, we found 
a freshly-killed bird gibbeted on Carrington Moss, 
which was at that time an extensive grouse-moor. 
KESTREL. 
FALCO TINNUNCULUS, Linnzeus. 
Windhover. 
Undoubtedly the Kestrel is the best-known Hawk in 
Cheshire, being met with sparingly in all parts of the 
county. It would, however, be much more abundant 
than it is, if gamekeepers and their employers would 
take the trouble to acquaint themselves with the fact 
that it subsists almost entirely upon field-mice, voles, 
1 Field, vol. xiii. p. 27. 1859. 
2 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 4. 3 Dobie, op. cit. p. 316. 
