CHAP. VIII. 



MERLIN. 



83 



Whilst we were carefully putting it away, the eagle passed 

 almost within shot of us. In one of the cottages a peasant 



upon its well-known breeding-places. 

 It arrives upon the moors towards the 

 end of March or beginning of April, 

 and feeds principally upon the smaller 

 birds frequenting the district (the 

 meadow pipit, gray linnet, twite, &c.), 

 which its rapid powers of flight en- 

 able it easily to fly down without 

 resorting to the manoeuvres which the 

 clumsier sparrow-hawk is compelled to 

 take advantage of. These moors are 

 the constant breeding-place of three 

 species of hawk — the kestrel, the spar- 

 row-hawk, and the merlin. The kestrel 

 hovers over the ground at a considerable 

 height, and pounces down on a mouse, 

 and occasionally a lizard or a young 

 grouse, as the pellets they cast up 

 abundantly testify. The sparrow-hawk 

 skims over hill-tops or hedges, or 

 round rocks, and comes upon its prey 

 unawares. The merlin, on the con- 

 trary, fairly flies it down. The site 

 selected for a nest varies in different 

 localities with many species of birds. 

 On the moors in the neighbourhood of 

 Sheffield, however, the sparrow-hawk 

 invariably builds in a tree : the kestrel 

 as invariably chooses a cleft in a rock, 

 aud the merlin always builds upon the 

 ground. The date of nidifieation is 

 evidently chosen with relation to an 

 abundant supply of food for the young, 

 as in the Cyclades Eleonora's falcon 

 postpones its operations until August, 

 so that the young may be fed upon the 

 flocks of quails returning southward 

 on their autumn migrations ; the mer- 



lin lays its eggs about the middle of 

 May, so that the voracious young may 

 be fed upon young grouse. A slight 

 hollow is chosen amongst the tall ling ; 

 whatever roots or dry grass may chance 

 to be upon the spot are scratched into 

 the rudiments of a nest ; and the only 

 materials actually selected by the bird 

 appear to be a few slender twigs of 

 ling to form the outside of the struc- 

 ture, and which are generally broken 

 from the heather overhanging the nest. 

 The site is usually sloping down to a 

 stream and commanding a good view 

 of the moor, and a patch of heather 

 some couple of hundred yards square 

 has often contained a merlin's nest 

 every year for the last dozen years, 

 whilst no other breeding-place could 

 be found nearer than eight or ten miles. 

 I watched two of these breeding-places 

 on the Sheffield moors — one near 

 Ashopton and the other near Strines — 

 for many years, and was well acquainted 

 with the gamekeepers in both localities. 

 There would be nothing extraordinary 

 in this if it could be proved that the 

 same pair, or their descendants, 

 annually visited and occupied the 

 same breeding-stations ; they might 

 easily be supposed to have obtained 

 a vested right in the estate and to have 

 defended it successfully against all 

 comers. But every year the game- 

 keepers in both localities shoot or trap 

 one or both of the parent birds — gene- 

 rally both — and in no case for more 

 than ten years have they ever allowed 



