272 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



even where the bird is happily still common, two 

 nests are seldom found within less than a mile or 

 two of one another. None the less I have known 

 of two eyries within a third of the first-named 

 distance. This event, however, is rare, and is 

 generally the result of the food supply in the 

 district being good, but the suitable sites scarce. 

 Not only does the Merlin pair for life and frequent 

 the same haunt yearly, but it also goes a step 

 further by rearing its young annually in the same 

 patch of heather, should that have escaped cutting 

 or burning. So attractive is one special spot that 

 I have known a pair of Merlins return to, and nest 

 in, a tiny remnant of what was once quite a lordly 

 sweep of heather ; while it is quite customary for the 

 birds should all the heather in the old haunt 

 have been ' ' improved ' ' to repair to the nearest 

 available site in the favourite area. It is hard 

 indeed to drive away a pair of Merlins, though for 

 the above reason they may be made to shift quarters 

 to the extent of half a mile or more. Moreover, 

 even if parents and young are destroyed wholesale 

 this summer, next spring will almost inevitably see 

 the gap filled by an alien couple. 



Although habitue's of the moorland once again, 

 even as early as March, the most forward Merlins 

 seldom begin laying until early mid-May (I have 

 known full clutches by the 12th), while backward 

 hens these generally being real mountain birds and 

 frequenters of high and very exposed grounds 



