1 88 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



are so systematically shot down, that few of them probably 

 reach the mature age when the female assumes a dress like 

 that of her mate. As a rule, the female Merlin is brown, the 

 tail-feathers being also brown, tipped with white, and crossed 

 with five bands of paler brown ; the under surface of the body 

 whitish, streaked with dark brown. Total length, 12 inches; 

 oilmen, 0-9; wing, 8'8; tail, 5-5; tarsus, i'5. 



Young Birds. General colour above brown, with a slight shade 

 of ashy-grey, paler on the rump, all the feathers margined with 

 pale sandy-rufous, the secondaries with concealed bars of the 

 same colour ; forehead, eyebrow, and ear-coverts whitish, 

 narrowly streaked with black, the latter brownish on the 

 hinder part, which is slightly washed with rufous ; throat 

 creamy-white, with narrow and indistinct shaft-lines of brown ; 

 remainder of under surface of body whitish, with broad streaks 

 of reddish-brown, the black shaft-stripes very distinct ; thighs 

 with smaller brown spots, and the abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts with only a few brown markings ; sides of body reddish- 

 brown, marbled with large white spots ; under wing-coverts 

 also reddish-brown, with white spots like the sides of the body ; 

 quills dark brown, notched on the inner web, and spotted on 

 the outer one with rufous ; tail dark brown, tipped with 

 whitish, and barred with pale rufous. 



Range in Great Britain. A resident species in Great Britain, 

 breeding on the mountain moorlands and descending to 

 more cultivated districts at lower elevations in winter, though 

 a considerable migration of the young birds from the shores 

 of England undoubtedly takes place. It is believed to nest 

 on Exmoor, but its regular breeding-haunts commence with 

 the moors of Derbyshire and North Wales, and extend thence 

 northwards to the Shetland Isles. The record of its breeding 

 in some of the more southern counties, though frequently 

 stated, needs confirmation in many instances. In Ireland. 

 Mr. R. J. Ussher says that " it breeds sparingly in about twenty- 

 two counties in the mountain districts, and also in some parts 

 of the great red bogs of the central plain." 



Range outside the British Islands. The Merlin inhabits the 

 mountain districts of Northern Europe, and breeds also in 

 Iceland and the Faeroes, being resident in the last named 



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