134 wild Life in Wales 



a very convenient arrangement, however, for keeping the 

 larder stocked, and one can only wonder that experience 

 did not warn the Starlings to take another route ; but 

 they did not, or if they did, other flocks took their place, 

 for until the Merlins were fledged there was probably 

 scarcely a day passed that they had not starling for their 

 evening meal, and instead of lessening in numbers, the 

 Starlings passing that way steadily increased for several 

 weeks following. 



Writing of this brings to mind a story which a Caithness 

 man, at that time a keeper here, told me in connection with 

 the young Merlins. He and a companion, he assured me, 

 had once witnessed the interesting spectacle of a Golden 

 Eagle teaching her young one to catch game. Both birds 

 were circling overhead, the old one carrying a prey in her 

 talons, which every now and again she let drop for the 

 young bird to catch, and when (as always happened) it was 

 missed, she herself dashed down and recovered it before 

 it had reached the ground. This went on for some 

 time before the game was abandoned, and the "prey" 

 allowed to fall to earth ; when, to the surprise of the 

 onlookers, upon going to see what it was, they found 

 it to be only a dry "peat," as cut and stacked for fuel. 

 It is not judicious to cast a doubt upon the veracity 

 of a Highlander, on his native heath, and I did not 

 risk it : the story was quite apropos, and si non e vero, 

 e ben trovato ! 



I one day saw a Merlin chase a Wheatear into a hole 

 amongst the rocks, and as she perched upon a stone close 

 by, I have no doubt she would have waited for a chance of 

 continuing the flight, had she not been disturbed. On the 

 other hand, there was a Wheatear's nest under a stone, near 

 the foot of one of the thorns which contained a Merlin's 

 nest, and the young from each were fledged about the same 

 time. At the Ddwallt, a Ring Ouzel reared her young, 

 unmolested, within twenty yards of a Peregrine's eyrie, and 

 the cock frequently sang from a projecting rock well within 

 half that distance of it. Cases of this sort are, however, 

 common enough. Does not Shakespeare say 



