Merlins and Pipits 131 



beneath them, and is never, I believe, adpressed to the 

 breast by the bending of the joint between the tibia and 

 metatarsus. This pendent position of the carried prey is 

 well seen in such long-limbed birds as the Sparrow-Hawk, 

 or a Harrier. I have also seen a Peregrine Falcon pass 

 swiftly overhead, with a grouse dangling beneath its tail. 

 The prey is, in fact, dragged along, in just the position in 

 which it offers least resistance to the air, and that is, after all, 

 only the natural method of dealing with any heavy and 

 cumbersome burden that has to be carried. 



Scattered round the Merlin's butt, I afterwards found 

 the wings of four or five Oak-Eggers, all males ; one 

 Emperor moth, also a male ; and one Painted Lady butter- 

 fly. Emperors were just emerging ; during the day I saw 

 one hanging, with wings yet undried, to the tops of the 

 heather, and another just struggling from the neck of its 

 cocoon. On another occasion, I found the wings of an 

 Emperor moth beside a Merlin's nest, as well as those of 

 a large dragon-fly, probably Mschna juncea, or M. mixta. 

 Elsewhere, I have noticed the short brown dragon-fly 

 (Libellula quadrimaculata), that is so often met with on these 

 moors, included in the Merlin's bill of fare, as well as a 

 cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), and occasionally one of the 

 larger beetles. The chief food of the Merlin upon the 

 moors, however, is the poor little " Moss-Cheeper " or 

 Meadow Pipit. One finds their remains more commonly 

 at the nests than anything else, and never without a 

 pang of regret that such a cruel fate should overtake so 

 cheerful a little bird, that never fails to greet you with a 

 stave of its modest song, or to accompany you, with jerky 

 flight, through the most inhospitable tracts of peat bog, in 

 which it somewhere manages to find a safe lodgment for 

 its nest. 



A keeper, who accompanied me for some time to-day, 

 told me of a trap that he had once set at a Merlin's nest, 

 amongst the heather on this moor. The trap was set on a 

 Saturday, and on the Monday morning he found the female 

 Merlin in it, surrounded by no less than eleven " Heather 

 Larks " (his name for the Meadow Pipit), all fresh and un- 



