iv FALCONIDAE 177 



deposited late in the season in disused birds' nests. The state- 

 ment that it broods on the eggs of the Kestrel needs further 

 proof. H. eleonorae, the largest Old World species of the genus, 

 occupying the Mediterranean basin from Spain and the Atlas 

 to the Levant, while straying to Mauritius, is uniform sooty- 

 black ; but some individuals never become sooty, and immature 

 examples precisely resemble the Hobby. The habits are like those 

 of its congener, but the two or three eggs are larger, and are laid 

 in holes in cliffs, or upon the bare soil on stony flats of desolate 

 islands. The very similar IT. concolor ranges from the Red Sea to 

 Madagascar ; If. cuvieri inhabits the Ethiopian Region ; H. opliryo- 

 phanes is described from Colonia ; If. severus extends from India 

 arid Ceylon to New Britain, but not to Australia; H. lunulatus from 

 Flores to the Duke of York Island, with Australia and Tasmania ; 

 H. fusco-caerulescens and H. rujigularis from Mexico to Argentina, 

 the former moreover reaching the southern United States and 

 Patagonia. The powerful H. diroleucus perhaps referable to the 

 genus Falco occurs from South Mexico to Peru and Brazil. 



Aesalon regulus, the Merlin, called the Stone -Falcon from 

 its habit of perching on rocks, is a lively and interesting 

 little species, daring yet confiding, which preys chiefly upon 

 small birds, and flies less swiftly than the Hobby, though both 

 are used for Lark-hawking. The shrill note is chiefly heard at 

 the breeding-quarters, which in Britain are generally on steep 

 hill-slopes, especially where stony outcrops break the heather or 

 grass; from four to six eggs duller and less blotched than those of 

 the Kestrel, being deposited in a hole scraped in the bare ground. 

 Abroad and exceptionally in Scotland old nests in trees or rocky 

 ledges are utilized, and the bird is perhaps occasionally its own 

 architect. Fairly common north of Derbyshire its summer range 

 extends over the moorlands from Shetland to Devonshire, and 

 includes Ireland, while it visits the sea-coast in autumn. It occurs 

 accidentally in Greenland, and reaches thence to the Pyrenees and 

 the Alps, being found across Northern and Central Europe and 

 Asia, and migrating to North Africa, North India, and South 

 China. The male is slaty - blue with rusty nape and under 

 surface, and is streaked with dusky throughout ; the throat is 

 white, as is the tip of the tail, which, besides six imperfect bars, 

 shows a broad sub-terminal black band. The dark brown female 

 has the lower parts white, the rectrices exhibiting eight light 



VOL. IX N 



