82 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap. viii. 



whole a thaw. The next day the morning was bitterly cold, 

 with the north wind blowing hard. In the afternoon the 

 wind veered to the west, with a heavy fall of snow. At 

 midnight the wind dropped, the sky became clear, the ther- 

 mometer went down to 16°. The landscape was again white 

 and frost-bonnd. It looked exactly like mid-winter, except 

 that at that hour of night we could see to read a newspaper 

 out of doors. The climate of these regions is very curious 

 at this time of the year. The change is sudden and violent 

 — the leaping from mid- winter into summer, without any 

 intervening spring. 



We strolled out in the morning, not expecting to see any- 

 thing new. We shot a tree-sparrow and a yellow-hammer, 

 and were returning home somewhat disheartened, in spite 

 of our unexpectant mood at starting, when a hen harrier 

 suddenly put in an appearance. He did not, however, come 

 within range, and we went into a little valley, there to wait 

 for him or a chance raven. By-and-by a small hawk crossed 

 in front of us. We followed it up the hillside, caught sight 

 of it again, watched it alight on a heap of manure, quietly 

 stalked it, and shot it. It turned out to be a female merlin.* 



* The merlin {Falco asalon, duel.) is replaced by a very nearly allied 



still breeds in the British Islands and species — Falco colurribarius (Linn.). In 



throughout North Europe, wintering in the valley of the Petchora we observed 



South Europe and North Africa. East- it as far north as latitude 68°. The 



wards it breeds throughout Northern merlin is a regular summer migrant to 



Siberia, occasionally straggling as tar the moors of South Yorkshire and Xovth 



south as Scinde and North-Wist India Derbyshire, where it would commit sad 



in winter, passing through Mongolia havoc among the young grouse, if it 



on migration, and i intering in Smith was not relentlessly persecuted by the 



China. On the American continent it gamekeepers, who keen a close watch 



