MERLIN. 35 



most westerly recorded limit of this species. It winters in South Europe 

 and Xorth Africa, where, according to Loche, a few remain through the 

 summer, retiring to the highest districts to breed. Eastward it breeds 

 throughout Northern Siberia, passing through Mongolia and Turkestan 

 on migration, and wintering in South China, North-west India, and Scinde. 

 Doubt encircles the movements of this, the prettiest of our British 

 Falcons. It was formerly considered to be only a winter visitant to this 

 country, which, so far as the southern portions are concerned, is no doubt 

 correct. It has also been said to be only a summer visitant, and, like the 

 Swallow, to take its departure southwards at the advent of winter. These 

 several statements have undoubtedly been made by persons whose expe- 

 rience of the bird has either been exclusively confined to its summer or 

 its winter quarters, and, although to a certain degree correct, they are 

 misleading. The Merlin, in those districts frequented by it, from 

 Xorth Derbyshire to the Shetlands, is a resident species, living on 

 the moorlands and the mountains in summer, and retiring to more 

 cultivated districts for the winter, in a similar manner to the Meadow- 

 Pipit. Even in the wild country of the Shetlands, the Western Isles, and 

 the Highlands the Merlin is found throughout the year in summer on 

 the mountains, in winter lower down, in more sheltered districts and on 

 the sea-shore. The fact that the birds are almost always shot off most of 

 their breeding -places has doubtless given rise to the opinion that they 

 were migratory, these breeding-places being tenanted the following 

 season most probably by young birds or birds passing over Great Britain 

 on migration to more northern haunts, or the birds that have spent 

 the winter in the southern counties. The birds found wintering in the 

 south of England are, probably, migrants from Xorth Europe, and not 

 bred in Britain at all. It is quite possible that all the young birds bred 

 with us migrate southwards, even though the old birds do not a fact 

 which is common to all, or nearly all, raptorial birds. Hence, if the old 

 birch be shot, the breeding-places are not occupied until the return of the 

 young birds, who seize upon any locality where the former occupants have 

 been destroyed. The latter would, if left unmolested, have remained for 

 the winter, or wandered to the lowlands, to return in spring, leaving their 

 young only to seek winter- quarters in the south. 



In summer the Merlin's haunt is the wild moors and mountain wastes, 

 the home of the Red Grouse the brown breezy hills and valleys where 

 grey rocks overgrown with heather and bilberry abound and steep moun- 

 tain rifts and gorges occur. In winter it quits the moors, and descends 

 to the cultivated districts, even to the sea-coasts. At this season it will also, 

 like the Kestrel, frequent towns, and take up its quarters in church-towers, 

 cathedrals, and large public buildings, preying upon the Pigeons or the 

 Sparrows frequenting those places, or sallying out at intervals to the sur- 



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