138 THE FALCONS 



brooding is defective, but there is no doubt that a considerable share is taken by 

 the female, though whether the male also takes part is not certainly known. Dr. 

 Holland estimates the incubation period at three weeks, but this is merely 

 approximate. The hobby is a remarkably late breeder, and rarely lays before the 

 end of May, and generally not till early June, while fresh eggs have been taken late 

 in June. Only one brood is reared in the season, though a second clutch may be 

 laid when the first has been destroyed. [F. c. B. j.] 



5. Food. Dragon-flies, cabbage and other butterflies, cockchafers and 

 other beetles, especially Geotrupes stercorarius, during the summer, varied by an 

 occasional swift, swallow, or martin. During the rest of the year larks, starlings, 

 and other small birds. The young are fed by the female, [w. P. P.] 



MERLIN [Fcttco regulus Pallas; Falco doscdon Tunstall. Stone-falcon, little 

 blue-hawk ; maalin (Shetlands). French, emerillon ; German, Zwergfalke ; 

 Italian, smeriglid}. 



1. Description. The merlin, on account of its small size, cannot be mis- 

 taken for any other of our British falcons. The male has the upper parts slate- 

 blue, paler on the rump. The shafts of the feathers are black, producing a finely 

 striated appearance. The under parts are white, tinged with rufous, and broadly 

 striated with black. The tail is tipped with white, and has a broad subterminal 

 band of black. The cere, eyelids, and legs are yellow, the iris dark brown. (PI. 115, 

 vol. iii. p. 310.) Length 10 in. [254 '0 mm.]. Very old females are like the male ; 

 more commonly the female has the upper parts brown, the under parts whitish, 

 with broad longitudinal streaks of dark brown. Length 12 in. [305 '0 mm.]. 

 Immature birds are brown above, each feather margined with pale sandy rufous ; 

 the under surface whitish, with broad longitudinal stripes of reddish brown, and 

 black shaft-stripes; the flanks, however, are reddish brown, marbled with large 

 white spots. Young in down greyish white, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In Great Britain the merlin is said to have bred on 

 Exmoor, but is known with certainty to nest in Wales from north to south, includ- 

 ing Anglesey, Salop, and along the Pennine range south to north Derbyshire, as 

 well as on the outlying spurs and moors to the north of this point. In Scotland 

 it becomes more numerous, not only on the mainland but also on the Hebrides, 

 Orkneys and Shetlands. In Ireland it is tolerably common in the hills and also 

 in some of the red bogs of the central plain according to Ussher. Outside the 



