On RToorlauih and Roughs. 6i 



have attributed it to old birds spreading the con- 

 taoion. Now, had the larger Raptores not been so 

 ruthlessly exterminated in these localities, surely it 

 is only reasonable to suppose that they would have 

 thinned out many of these birds, not perhaps pre- 

 venting an epidemic, but thus assisting in rendering 

 it of a milder character than otherwise prevails. 

 Depend upon it, man seldom or never meddles with 

 the delicately-adjusted balance of nature without un- 

 fortunate results in some direction. But to return to 

 the Merlin and its economy. Like the Sparrow-hawk 

 and many other raptorial birds, this pretty species 

 selects some spot or spots in its haunts to which it 

 conveys its captures to devour them in peace. The 

 nest is almost invariably made at no great distance 

 from these "dining-tables " or "larders", where the 

 bare and often rock-strewn ground is sprinkled with 

 feathers, bones, pellets, wing-cases and wings of 

 insects, the remains of the Merlin's food. These 

 haunts, as previously remarked, are tenanted yearly 

 with wonderful regularity, and the nest each season 

 is made in much the same locality as in previous 

 years. This nest is of the simplest, and always, so 

 far as we know, upon the ground. " Nests " have 

 been recorded in Scotland in the old nest of some 

 other bird in a tree;^ whilst in some foreign coun- 

 tries a ledge of a cliff is said to be selected. Our 



' Conf. Zoologist, 1 878, p. 29. 



