VOL. xv.J HHEEDING-HABITS OF MERLIN. 



227 



The cock spent most of his time away, though at night he. 

 too, was on one of the boulders. He arrived with food at 

 irregular intervals throughout the day, the average being 

 about two hours. The shortest was ten minutes, when he 

 brought two fledgling Meadow-Pipits at the first visit, 

 and another one apparently from the same brood at the 

 second. The longest was three hours. During such pro- 

 tracted waits the hen would often begin " Keking " (with 

 impatience apparently) on her rock at intervals before 



Merlin : Fig. lo. Rending the prey. 



The top of the " rip." Her weight is thrown on to the tail. 



{Photographed by W. Rowan.) 



his arrival. As he hove in sight, usually with the charac- 

 teristic food-call, she would leave her station and fly to meet 

 him. Promptly and invariably he would fly low for the 

 nearest boulder, often some way down the valley, and the 

 hen would then fly beneath him at incredible speed and 

 seize the prey. Both birds were always so low, and the 

 transaction so swiftly executed, that it was exceedingly 

 difficult to see whether he dropped the prey or whether she 

 snatched it from him. Once beyond doubt he was on the 

 boulder before she reached him and he could not have dropped 



