276 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



crow exultant at early dawn, and where the 

 Curlew's quavering music ripples amongst the 

 heather-clad mountains. 



The Merlin lays from three to six eggs, four 

 usually, five sometimes, six rarely, and three often 

 in second attempts after number one has met with 

 misfortune, though occasionally a trio constitutes 

 the original ' set." Their general appearance is 

 brown with a tinge of red, closely speckled and 

 freckled all over with shades of a darker tint. They 

 vary somewhat, they may even vary in the same 

 ' clutch," but creamy-grounded, red-blotched types 

 are rare ; in fact, they seldom show those bright, 

 brick-red and pink tints which make most of the 

 Peregrine's and Kestrel's eggs so attractive. This 

 generally brown, speckly appearance, combined with 

 the fact that they are nearly always appreciably 

 smaller than eggs of the Hobby and Kestrel, renders 

 some say most unidentified specimens seen 

 in a miscellaneous collection fairly easy to name. 

 Personally, however, I would not like to swear 

 to an unidentified Merlin's egg, since I have seen 

 small specimens of the brown type of Kestrel's 

 egg which could not possibly be separated from 

 the former. 



The eggs are laid at intervals of two days, and 

 incubation, the work of both sexes, though the 

 female is the principal performer, lasts for one egg 

 twenty-eight days, since the first egg or two 

 dropped is often brooded . On the state of incuba- 



