777 



MERLIN. 



HEROPID.E. 



778 



MERLIN, the English name for the Falto jEialon of Linnaeus; 

 Emerillon, Rochier, and Faucon de Roche, of the French ; Stein-Falke 

 of the Germans; Smerlio, Smeriglio, and Falchetto, of the Italians ; 

 and Corwalch and Llymystem of the Welsh. This species belongs to 

 the third sub-family, Falconina, of the large family Falconidce. 

 [FALCONID.E.] The following are the characters of this bird : 



Old Male. Bill bluish horn-colour, palest at the base, darkest 

 towards the tip ; cere yellow, irides dark brown ; top of the head 

 blue-gray, with dark lines passing backwards ; the cheeks and thence 

 round the back of the neck pale reddish brown, also marked with 

 dark streaks, forming a collar ; the whole of the back and wing- 

 covers fine blue-gray, the shaft of each feather forming a dark central 

 line ; wing primaries pitch-black ; upper surface of the tail-feathers 

 bluish-gray over two-thirds of their length, with slight indications of 

 three dark bands, the distal third nearly uniform black, the tips of all 

 the feathers white; breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts 

 rufous, with brown central patches, and darker brown streaks ; under 

 surface of the tail-feathers barred -with two shades of gray, a broad 

 dark terminal band, and white tips ; legs and toes yellow, claws black. 



Female. Top of the head, back, wing-coverts, and secondaries 

 dark liver-brown, the shaft of each feather darker, the edge tipped 

 with red ; the tail-feathers browu, with fine narrow transverse bars 

 of wood-brown ; under surface of the body pale brownish-white, with 

 darker brown longitudinal patches ; bill, cere, eyes, legs, toes, and 

 claws, as in the male. 



Young Males Resembling the females. 



Birds of the Year. The wiugs do not reach so far towards the 

 end of the tail as those in the adult. (Yarrell, ' History of British 

 Birds.') 



The length of this, the smallest of the British hawks, is from 10 

 to 12 inches, according to ex. 



Upper figure, young male of the year, which the female, unless very old, 

 rewmblei. Lower figure, adult male. 



" Assuredly," saith the author of the ' Book of Falconrie," " divers 

 of these Merlyns become passing good liawkes and verie skilful; their 

 property by nature is to kill thrushes, larks, and partridges. They 

 flee with greater fierceness and more hotley than any other hawke of 

 prey. They are of greater pleasure, and full of courage, but a man 

 must make greater care, and take good heed to them, for they are 

 such busie and unruely things with their beakes, as divers times they 

 eate off their own feet and tallons very unnaturally, so as they die of 

 it. And this is the reason and true cause, that seldom or never shall 

 you see a mewed or entermewed Merlyn. For that in the Mew they 

 do spoyle themselves, as I have before declared." Sir John Sebright 

 nays that the Merlin will take blackbirds and thrushes, and that he 

 may be made to wait on, that is, hover near till the bird be pursued 

 and started again ; " and though a Merlin will kill a partridge, they 

 are not atrong enough to be effective in the field." (' Observations on 

 Hawking.') The nest is placed on the ground, and but poorly made. 

 The eggs (1 inch 7 lines long, and 1 inch 3 lines broad) vary in number 

 from four to five, and are mottled with reddish-brown of two shades 

 of colour. 



This bird is found in Europe, as high as Denmark, and as low as 

 the shores of the Mediterranean; Smyrna (Strickland), Cape of Good 

 Hope (Smith) ; North America, according to Sir John Richardson, 

 who says that "a single pair were seen in the neighbourhood of 

 Carlton House in May, 1827, and the female was shot. In the oviduct 

 there were several full-sized white eggs, clouded at one end with a few 

 bronze-coloured spots. Another specimen, probably also a female, was 

 killed at Sault St. Marie, between Lakes Huron and Superior, but it 

 could not be preserved." Sir John Richardson was unable to ascer- 

 tain the extent of its migrations on the American continent. Neither 

 Wilson, Nuttall, nor Prince C. L. Bonaparte notices it as occurring in 

 the United States; but the latter ('Specchio Comparative") mentions 

 it as very rare at Rome, and he only observed the young, and that in 

 winter. It " was formerly considered to be only a winter visitor to 

 this country ; but it is now very well ascertained that this species 

 breeds on the moors of some northern counties. Mr. Selby has 

 found the nest several tunes in Northumberland ; and Dr. Heysham 

 mentions three instances that came to his knowledge of Merlins' nests 

 in Cumberland, where, he says, this bird remains all the year. Mr. 

 Eyton tells me that it breeds on Cader Idris ; and Mr. Dovastou sent 

 a notice to his friend Mr. Bewick, ' on the authority of the game- 

 keeper at Wynstay Park, North Wales, that he had often seen the 

 nest of the Merlin, and that it built and bred there in the summer of 

 1826.' " 



" In the more southern counties of Cornwall and Devonshire the 

 Merlin is considered to be rare, and only seen in winter. On our 

 eastern coast it is killed, but not very often, in Kent, Essex, and 

 Norfolk. The specimens obtained are generally young birds, and 

 these occur most frequently in autumn, or at the beginning of winter. 

 In Ireland, according to Mr. Thompson, the Merlin is indigenous in 

 several northern counties. It breeds also in Scotland, in Orkney, and 

 in Shetland. In North Wales the young birds are called Stone- 

 Falcons ; but among ornithologists the Stone-Falcon is considered to 

 be an adult bird. It is not however improbable that the habit of 

 sitting on a bare stone or portion of rock, by which this species has 

 acquired the name of Stone-Falcon, is common to it at all ages and 

 in other countries." (Yarrell.) 



The character of the Merlin ia thus summed up in the old French 

 quatrain : 



" L'Esmerillon beau par eitrcmito 



A le coDur gay, et fort hardy courage, 



Et bien qu'il soil petit, si fait-il rage 



A pour suyvir sa prove en gayeteV* 



MERLU'CIUS, a genus of Fishes belonging to the Qadidce, or 

 family of Cod-Fishes, distinguished by the possession of only two dor- 

 sal fins and one anal fin, and the absence of the barbulo on the chin. 

 This latter character distinguishes the species of the genus Merlucius 

 from the Burbots (Lota) and Rocklings (Motella), and there being only 

 two dorsal fins removes the present genus from the more typical Cod- 

 Fishes, where there are three dorsal fins. 



M, vulgarit, Cuv. (Gail us Merluciu3\, the Hake, affords a familiar 

 example of this genus. This fish is found on various parts of the 

 coasts both of England and Ireland. It inhabits also the seas of the 

 western coast of Norway, and is common on the northern shore of 

 the Mediterranean. " A hake of 3 feet 8 inches long," says Mr. Yarrell, 

 in his ' History of British Fishes,' " supplied the means of obtaining 

 the following particulars : The length of the head, compared to the 

 length of the body alone, as one to three ; the depth of the body not 

 so great as the length of the head ; the ventral fins are placed in, 

 advance of the pectorals, the rays not unequally elongated ; the 

 pectoral fins commence in a line under the posterior angle of the oper- 

 culum, the rays ending with the end of the first dorsal fin ; the first 

 dorsal fin itself short and triangular in shape ; the second dorsal fin 

 commences in a line over the vent ; the anal fin begins immediately 

 behind tbe vent; both the second dorsal fin and the anal fin termi- 

 nate on the same plane, near the tail ; the rays strong and stiff; the 

 caudal rays about three inches long and nearly even. 



"The fin rays in number are: Dorsal, 10, 29; pectoral, 11; 

 ventral, 7 ; anal, 21 ; caudal, 19. 



" The head is depressed ; the inside of the mouth and gill-covers 

 black; the lower jaw the longest ; teeth slender and sharp, in a single 

 row in each jaw ; the irides yellow, with a dark outer circle ; the 

 lateral line of the body straight throughout the posterior half, then 

 gradually rising to the upper edge of the operculurn ; the appearance 

 of the lateral line is that of one white line between two dark ones ; 

 the scales large ; colour of the body dusky brown above, lighter 

 beneath ; dorsal and caudal fins dark ; ventral and anal fins pale 

 brown." 



The Qadtti Magellanicus of Forster, and the Q. Maraldi of Risso, 

 are mentioned by Cuvier as species belonging to the present genus. 



ME'ROE (Schumacher), a name for certain Cowry-Shells, Cythercea, 

 siilnalu, C. cripta, O. hians, &c. 



MEKO'PID^E, a family of Fissirostral Birds, which, in the opinion 

 of Mr. Vigors, is most nearly connected with the conterminous tribe 

 of Tenuiroatrea by the length, slenderness, and downward curvature of 

 the bill. He adds that it exhibits at first sight a decided discrepancy 

 with the succeeding family of Hirwndinidoe, where the bill is short 

 and wide ; and that if we examine only the typical species of each we 



