284 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



Moreover to return momentarily to the Merlin- 

 Sparrow-Hawk question Merlins are compara- 

 tively seldom seen over or round woodlands, and 

 then only passing by or when going to roost in some 

 plantation in their winter-haunts ; Sparrow-Hawks 

 often and nearly always. The one is a bird of free 

 flight full in the open, the other a creature of stealth 

 and cautious comings and goings in an enclosed, 

 wooded country. 



A paragraph on the Merlin's plumage and 

 general appearance, and I must conclude. To 

 begin with, the bird can boast of being the most 

 diminutive of the British birds of prey, the male 

 seldom exceeding 10 in. or 11 in. in length, the 

 female 12 in. or 13 in. at the outside. In fully 

 adult dress the former is blue-grey (some 

 becoming very blue indeed) on the head and 

 back the nape, however, being reddish with 

 thin, indistinct dusky streaks to the feather- shafts ; 

 the tail, too, is bluish, banded near its extremity 

 with crpe, which is in turn tipped with white. 

 The under-parts are reddish-white, except the 

 throat which is whitish, all duskily slashed. The 

 female, however, if we exclude very old ones 

 which assume the grey garb of the male is brown 

 above inclusive of the tail which is barred with 

 brown of a lighter shade and tipped white ; below, 

 dirty-white, brown -streaked. Juveniles in their 

 first complete suit run their mother close in general 

 appearance, albeit of a redder brown cast : while 



