BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



225 



the bird's own body. These are light greyish- 

 brown, with pale centres and tips. Sometimes no 

 materials whatever except down are provided. 



Eggs. -Six or seven to eleven or twelve, olive- 

 grey to bumsh-grey. Size about 2.6 by 1.7 in. 



Time, End of May, June, and the beginning of 



July- 



Remarks. A winter visitor ; numbers, however, 

 stay and breed with us. Local and other names : 

 Red-breasted Goose, Sheld Duck, and Spear Wigeon 

 (the latter two names only applied to the bird in 

 Ireland). A very close sitter. I have trodden upon 

 a bird on her nest in the heather before she would 

 move. 



Order ACCIPITRES 



MERLIN. 



(Falco cesalon.) 



Family FALCONIM (FALCONS). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length about ten inches. Beak 

 short, much curved, and bluish- 

 horn colour. Bare skin round 

 the base of the beak yellow. 

 Irides dark brown. Crown 

 bluish-grey, marked with black 

 streaks along the shafts of the 

 feathers. Cheeks and upper 

 part of neck rusty-brown, 

 blackish streaks ; back, scapu- 

 lars, wing-coverts, and rump bluish-grey, each 

 feather having the shaft black ; wing-primaries 

 black. Tail-quills, like the back, barred with a 

 darker hue, and tipped with white. Chin and 

 throat nearly white ; breast, belly, sides, and thighs 



MERLIN ON NEST. 



marked with 



