126 THE MERLIN. 



The Merlin or Stone Falcon (Falco JEsalon.) Selby. 



Fab. " What a dish of poison hath she dressed him ! 



Sir T. And with what wing the stannyel * checks f at it ! " 



—Tivelfth Night. 



The merlin is the smallest of our indigenous falcons, and 

 derives its name of stannyel, stone falcon, and rock hawk from 

 its habit of perching upon large stones or rocks on the moors. 

 It is a miniature peregrine falcon — in courage as well as 

 plumage — which it resembles in all but size. A male six ounces 

 in weight has been known to kill a partridge twice its size ; but 

 its usual prey is small birds, which it seizes on the wing— 

 although, when pressed for food for its brood, it will attack the 

 partridge (especially the young) ; but as it does not strike on the 

 ground this seldom happens. It does not, therefore, do much 

 harm to sportsmen, and the lovers of natural history might be 

 spared the loss of this beautiful bird by the keepers ; for even 

 the sportsman's own illused pet — the fox — occasionally takes a 

 pheasant as well as a partridge. It is curious that the hobby, 

 which it resembles, is only a rare summer visitant ; while the 

 merlin comes to us chiefly in winter. It was considered to be 

 only a winter visitant in Britain — leaving us in spring, which is 

 incorrect, as I have several specimens shot near St Andrews 

 from the 1st of March to the end of September. Neither do 

 our ornithologists throw much light upon its nidification. 

 Fifty years ago it bred on Tentsmuir and Priorsmuir amongst the 

 heather ; not now, as the heather has been burned and the 

 woods cut down. The nest was loosely constructed of sticks and 

 bits of heath. I have several times got their nests on ledges of 

 rocks at Kinkell. They usually lay in the end of April, but I 

 have got their eggs in June — usually four. They are less than 

 the kestrel's, and darker red — not so much spotted as thickly 

 freckled all over ; but, as usual with coloured eggs, not two are 

 alike. Of the ten I have, not two are exactly the same. On 

 the 12th of June 1859, 1 got three fresh eggs in a bare hollow in 

 the ledge of a rock only six feet from the ground. There were no 

 sticks nor the appearance of a nest, only the natural slight 

 hollow in the rock — being so late, it might have been harried 

 before. It was at the "Black Eock," near " Kittock's Den," 



c Stannyel— & stone falcon. t Checks- flies. 



