SPECIES 5 THE ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY. 



Falco Rufipes. Bechstein. 

 Faucon a pieds rouge ou Hober. Temm. 



THIS elegantly marked falcon, so extremely beautiful in its 

 adult plumage, has never been obtained in that state in Ire- 

 land ; but, similar with the hobby, it has only occurred in a 

 single instance in immature plumage, which was shot in the 

 county of Wicklow in the summer of 1832, and is preserved 

 in the collection of T. W. Warren, Esq., of this city, having 

 been presented to that gentleman by the shooter, who killed 

 it in his own yard, whither it had the temerity to follow and 

 strike down a pigeon fully its own size. Rarely met with in 

 England ; it has never occurred in Scotland. 

 Habitat Eastern Europe. 



SPECIES 6 THE MERLIN. 



Falco cesalon. Ray. 



Faucon emerillon. Temm. 



Sparrow-hawk. 



THIS beautiful and spirited little falcon, the smallest and 

 most courageous of the Irish falconidse, is very unusual in its 

 occurrence, and appears to frequent principally the moun- 

 tainous portions of the island. Occasionally a specimen may 

 be obtained about Dublin, but rare in its occurrence, we 

 seldom observe it at any time nearer than the Dublin and 

 Wicklow mountains, where it breeds. Now perched and form- 

 ing an apex to some projecting crag, his eye keenly observant 

 of approach, he remains unwilling to fly until the last moment, 

 when, skimming down, and again rising on the wing, he shoots 

 along with the utmost rapidity, a motion of the tail and 

 wing, and he sweeps along closer to the ground, each hedge- 

 row in his way he approaches closely, rises, and dips over, and 

 displays as long as he continues in sight the same easy, gliding 

 motion. Exhibiting the most determined courage and perti- 

 nacity of purpose, once the merlin succeeds in starting his 

 quarry, every movement of the doomed bird is followed up in 

 a succession of rushes upon the wing, until the prey is clutched, 

 and both come to the earth almost stunned and breathless. 

 In one instance, remarked by a friend at Belgard, near the 

 Dublin mountains, a merlin was observed to glance over a 

 park wall at the same instant that a woodquest took flight 

 from the centre of the field. Both birds escaped his view in a 



