MERLIN 



PLATE XVI. 

 Falco cesalon^ TUNSTALL. 



THE nest of the Merlin, the smallest of our British 

 Falcons, is generally, in this country at least, a hollow 

 scratched on the ground, on open moors or heaths ; fre- 

 quently on the side of a ravine, in a tuft of heath, or pro- 

 jection of a rock or bank ; and when this is the case, is 

 composed of very scanty materials a few sticks, with heather, 

 grass, or moss the bare ground almost sufficing for the 

 purpose. In other countries it appears, occasionally at all 

 events, to be built in trees, and is then made of sticks, and 

 lined with wool. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands it is 

 placed among precipitous and inaccessible rocks. Montagu 

 says that an instance has been known of a Merlin building 

 in a deserted Crow's nest ; and in Scandinavia such occur- 

 rences are by no means rare. Mr. Booth, in his valuable 

 Rough Notes, says : " The position of their nests varies con- 

 siderably. I have seen them placed among the heather on 

 the flat moors, and on more than one occasion on small ledges 

 in the face of steep rocks. The construction of their cradle 

 is not particularly elaborate, small heather-stalks, roots, and 

 fine twigs and fibres of grass being utilised in the con- 

 struction ; it, however, as a rule, fits cosily into some natural 

 hollow in the ground." 



