VOL. XV.] BUEEDING-HABITS OF MERLIN. 



129 



country is preferable to all others ? The Merlin is rare in 

 some localities where it was once abundant, but not so at 

 Skipton and the West Riding generally, despite almost 

 complete annual extermination. Is it possible that this 

 district is drawing from others in which the species is 





Merlin : Fig. 3. A mound of earth used as a perch instead of a 



boulder. 

 {Photographed by W. Rowan.) 



disappearing ? To follow up the argument without deducing 

 further evidence would probably be futile, but one cannot 

 help imagining that such a theory would adapt itself 

 admirably to the elucidation of several unsolved problems 

 in connection with migration and the erratic and unexplained 

 seasonal wanderings of many species of birds. 



{To he continued.) 



