Lessons to Young Hawks 133 



top of a wooded dingle, on the side of Aran Mawddwy, 

 near Drws-y-nant. The full clutch of eggs varied from 

 four to six, always of the orthodox Merlin type, with the 

 violet bloom which so readily distinguishes such eggs when 

 fresh from those of the Kestrel. The colour may be as 

 easily washed from a Merlin's egg as from a Kestrel's, and, 

 where the eggs have been much exposed to wet weather, 1 

 have seen them considerably blurred. 



Towards the close of summer, after the young are well 

 fledged, flocks of Starlings pass regularly every afternoon, 

 across the moors, from the Dee valley in the direction of 

 Trawsfynydd, flock after flock often succeeding one another 

 in rapid succession. No doubt there is some specially 

 favoured roosting-place in that locality, though I did not 

 happen to come across it. On the moor, there was a 

 Merlin's nest, which contained three scarcely more than 

 half-grown young at the beginning of August, and the 

 old birds had got into the habit of regularly levying 

 toll on the passing Starlings. The remains of two or three 

 young ones (I never saw an adult) were nearly always to be 

 found at the nest, and we once found four, all newly killed, 

 at the same time. Happening to be passing that way, 

 rather late one afternoon, I sat down at some little distance 

 to await events. Starlings soon began to appear, but 

 without passing very close to the nest, and as yet no Merlin 

 was visible. By and by, however, the male arrived, and 

 settled upon a stone ; the female, I think, must have been 

 sitting all the time with her brood at the nest. Presently a 

 flock of Starlings shaped a course almost directly over the 

 nest, and in an instant both the little falcons were in the air, 

 and, by almost simultaneous stoops, each brought its bird to 

 the ground, quite close to the nest, and most probably well 

 within view of the expectant young. It were easy to 

 enlarge upon this, as an object lesson to the young birds in 

 the art of catching prey, but the pen grows loath. It is too 

 well known that no young hawks require any such teaching, 

 but are ready, though they may have been hand-reared and 

 never have seen a bird killed, to make the attempt to catch 

 their food as soon as they are able to fly. It was certainly 



