6 BIRDS OF THE HTJMBER DISTRICT. 



found the nest of a Merlin in Branston Booths, 

 near Lincoln, on the border of the fen country (this 

 wood is now taken up). The nest, which con- 

 tained four eggs, was placed on the stump of 

 a felled tree, and surrounded by thick grass and 

 undergrowth. 



9. FALCO TINNUNCULUS, Linnaeus. Kestrel. 

 Provincial. Windhover. 



Common, and generally distributed throughout the 

 district, where it also breeds. The Humber embank- 

 ments and the adjoining marshes are, in the autumn, 

 a very favourite hunting-ground for both the old and 

 young birds. 



10. ASTUR PALUMBARIUS (Linnaeus) . Gos-Hawk*. 



Practically extinct in North Lincolnshire and Hol- 

 derness. One was shot to the north of Flamborough 

 at Filey Brig the first week in October 1864 (Zoolo- 

 gist for 1864, p. 9327) ; and in June of the same year 

 an immature bird, now in the collection of Mr. Clap- 

 ham, of Scarborough, was trapped on the Yorkshire 

 moors, near Pickering. 



* In a letter to the Ibis ' for 1870, p. 292, Mr. Robert Gray 

 mentions having recently met with a specimen of the American 

 Gos-Hawk (Astur atricapillus) killed in Perthshire, and remarks 

 on the possibility of American birds, bearing a close likeness to 

 British species, occurring more frequently in the country than 

 collectors are aware of. 



