HAWKS AND HAWK-LIKE BIRDS. 159 



MERLIN.— Plate 73. Male: length, 11 inches. 

 Head slaty-blue, with a ruddy, black -streaked collar 

 below the nape ; upper parts blue-gray ; larger wing- 

 feathers black ; tail slaty-blue, broadly barred with 

 black at the end ; sides of face and of neck, and under 

 parts generally, white, the last with heavy, longi- 

 tudinal, dark spots ; under sides of wings white, with 

 dark spots and bars ; bill hooked, dark ; feet yellow. 

 Fe^nale: 121^ inches. The parts that are bluish in 

 the male, in the female are brown. Resident. 



Eggs. — 4-6, densely mottled with purply-red or 

 reddish-brown; I'S x 1-2 inch (plate 128). 



Nest. — A hollow among ling or heather on the 

 moorland, sometimes with a little of either about it. 



Distribution. — From the Derbyshire hills to the 

 Shetlands ; mountainous parts of Wales and Ireland, 

 as well as some of the bog-lands of the central 

 plain of the latter. In winter generally distributed 

 throughout lowlands and around seashores. 



The Merlin is the sraaXlest of our HaivJcs, but a 

 sturdy, squarely built bird. A bird of the moorland, 

 it nests on the ground, either on a heathery slope or 

 on a rocky ledge, and ranges from the Welsh moun- 

 tains and the Derbyshire hills northwards. After 

 the breeding season it is to be met in the lowlands, 

 often by the seashore, and especially at the times of 

 migration, when some of the birds leave the countr}" 

 for the winter. In both situations it preys chiefly 

 upon small birds, flying them down with great dash 

 and pertinacity. This being its principal occupation, 

 the Merlin is as a rule a low flier, darting along- 



