Birds. 9653 



leave of the crow, although the scamp never takes leave of me ; he 

 is always present. 



T. P. NORGATE. 

 Sealkote, Punjaub, India, April 3, 1865. 



Ornithological Notes from Lanarkshire. 

 By Edward R. Alston, Esq. 



(Continued from page 9573.) 



May, 1865. 



Merlin. — A female merlin, which built this month by the side of a 

 small heathery glen on a farm near this, showed an attachment to her 

 eggs almost worthy of being recorded along with the famous raven in 

 Gilbert White's second letter. Being flushed from the nest she was 

 fired at and struck, but not killed; about an hour afterwards she was 

 found seated on her eggs, so severely wounded that she was unable to 

 move, and was taken with the hand. Even the stern heart of a game- 

 keeper was touched by the devotion of the poor mother, who had used 

 her last remaining strength to return to her beloved charge, but nothing 

 was left but to put her out of pain. The bodies of three sni]:)e were 

 found beside the nest, a proof of the great powers of flight of this 

 handsome little falcon; the eggs, four in number and partially in- 

 cubated, were brought to me. 1 have never seen any eggs of the mer- 

 lin which agreed with Morris's description, " Bluish white, blotted, 

 particularly at the thicker end, with deep reddish brown or greenish 

 brown" (vol. i. p. 116). Yarrell's account is much better, "Mottled 

 all over with two shades of reddish brown" (vol. i. p. 50) ; they vary, 

 however, considerably in depth of tint; but, like all falcon's eggs, they 

 are generally darker at the smaller end. A female merlin, which was 

 sent to me from Ayrshire, in January last, was so gorged with the 

 remains of some species of thrush that not only the stomach but even 

 the gullet, was completely crammed, almost to the throat; this was an 

 unusually dark-coloured example. 



Tawny and Barn Owls. — I lately examined seven " castings" of the 

 tawny owl ; they contained the bones, fur, &c., of at least ten mice 

 and field-voles, six or seven shrews, one young rabbit, and one small 

 bird. As these birds throw up at least one casting daily the number 

 of mice destroyed by a pair in the course of the year must be enormous. 

 Mr. Broderip, in his admirable account of the owls in the ' Zoological 

 Recreations,' speaks of this species as " a sylvan hermit, with a dash of 



