THE RED-FOOTED FALCON 229 



to year after year, measures some four feet across 

 -a truly gigantic nest for so small a bird. I 

 regret to add that the parent birds and their eggs 

 also accompany this nest in the above-named 

 collection. Merlins were at one time trained for 

 taking larks ; but the female, by reason of her 

 greater size and strength, is capable of killing 

 pigeons, being formerly, and still when kept at 

 the present time, used for that purpose. It is 

 a graceful, charming little bird, but I have been 

 given to understand that it is particularly subject 

 to being infested with vermin. Hence, in captivity, 

 it requires extra care and cleanliness, though both 

 of these are absolutely essential to the main- 

 tenance of all tame falcons and hawks in proper 

 health and condition. Create numbers of these 

 birds are captured annually in the wild-fowlers 

 nets in Norfolk during the autumnal equinoctial 

 gales. These are doubtless visitors on passage 

 from Scotland and the Northern counties. 



Of the red-footed falcon and the lesser kestrel, 

 both of which birds I named in the list of British 

 Falconidae at the beginning of the present chapter, 

 there is but little to be said, inasmuch as they 

 are especially rare. Indeed, of the latter but four 

 occurrences have been recorded in this country, 

 the last three or four years ago. In plumage it 

 is very similar to the common kestrel, but shorter 

 in length by two or three inches. 



The red-footed falcon is mentioned as a rare 

 wanderer to England when on migration. Its 



