Their Eggs and Nests. 47 



other bird — Hawk, or Magpie, or Crow — to be its 

 bridal home. It lays two or three (very rarely four) 

 egi!;s, beautiful, as all the Falcons' eggs are, and leav- 

 ing no doubt as to their Falcon origin to anyone 

 who is able even to tell " a Hawk from a Heron- 

 sheugh." They are of a nearly uniform pale dull red 

 in ground-colour, thickly spotted and mottled with 

 shades of deeper red. Larks and other small birds 

 are taken — often after lengthened chases — but, besides 

 its feathered prey, the Hobby, doubtless, destioys 

 large numbers of beetles and other insects of any con- 

 siderable size. — Fzg. 4, plate I. 



RED-FOOTED YKLCO^—(Falco vespertinns ; 

 formerly, rujipes'). 



Also Orange-legged Hobby, Red-legged Falcon. — 

 Only a rare visitant. Breeds in Eastern Europe and 

 Western Siberia (Seebohm). 



MERLIN— (/v?/r^ cesalon). 



Also Stone Falcon, Blue Hawk. — This beautiful 

 bird makes its nest, in moorland districts at least, 

 almost invariably on the ground ; though it is rather 

 a piece of flattery to say that it makes a nest at all. 

 A little hollow in the ground, and that usually not 

 too conspicuous by the absence of ling in its vicinity, 

 with scarcely any lining, receives the eggs, three to 

 five in number, and characterised by the reddish hue 

 and spottings which seem to garnish the eggs of 

 almost all the true Falcons. The nest is said to be 

 sometimes built in a tree, and then, from Mr. Double- 



