THE MERLIN. 101 



bird ; for when that is the case, the male plumage sometimes 

 stops at one of the intermediate stages, and has often led to 

 an unnecessary multiplication of the species. 



The female merlin is quite a lady's hawk, and would 

 remain so, if the dames of England were again to temper 

 their beauty in the autumnal winds, and so secure the full 

 life-rent of it, undisturbed. It is a little and a light bird, 

 and for spirit there is no comparison. The naked parts are 

 lemon yellow, irides hazel, and the bill, which is beautifully 

 shaped, dark blue, head mottled brown, with a white patch 

 round the eye, divided by a longitudinal dusky line, which 

 makes the upper part of the white appear like an eyebrow. 

 The white on the neck nearly forms a collar, lined in front, 

 and dropped on the sides with brown. The under parts 

 white, brown, and grey, with dusky spots, the markings 

 continued under the wings. The upper part grey-brown and 

 dusky, finely mottled. The tail, which is peculiarly hand- 

 some, contains one dusky feather in the middle \ those at the 

 sides brown, with white tips, and very regular bars of very 

 pale reddish brown. When the wings are half raised,' and 

 the tail partially spread, the merlin falcon is perhaps the 

 handsomest of all hawks. The whole length is nearly the 

 same as that of the hobby, but the spread of the wings is 

 two inches less ; the tail is, however, more than an inch 

 longer, so that, weight for weight, the merlin is the better 

 winged bird of the two. The weight is not six ounces ; that 

 of the hobby is about seven. 



The merlin is a resident bird, and described as being rather 

 rare, though probably it is more abundant than is generally 

 supposed ; its habits and its small size tend to make it less 

 generally seen than many other birds, which, though they 

 come more into sight, are really less abundant. In the 

 breeding season, the merlin frequents the bleak moor, and 

 constructs its nest in stony places, and sometimes, though 



