i86 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 



lesson, and makes a good bag. The quail or partridge is allowed a good start, 

 the turumti being held up so as to eye the receding bird, and then thrown in the 

 direction of the latter, wuth some force, shooting off at once, more like a dart than 

 anything else, at the quarry." 



The hobby {F. subbiiteo) is one of the most elegant of the British 

 ^' falcons. It belongs to a group in wdiich the thighs are perfectly 

 uniform ; their colour in this species being rufous, while the throat and breast are 

 w^hite, and the latter marked with black stripes. Above, the general colour is dark 

 slaty grey, tending to black on the head. The length is 11^ inches in the male and 

 13| in the female. The hobby is a migratory species, ranging over Europe and 

 Northern Asia, and extending into India and North China, wdiile in w^inter it 

 journeys to South Africa. By no means numerous in Britain, it is still not un- 

 common in the inland wooded and cultivated districts of the south of England. 

 In addition to preying on small birds, it also feeds on dragon-flies and beetles, and 

 is thus a benefactor to the farmer. 



Our last representative of the typical falcons is the well-known 

 merlin (F. cesalon), which, together with the smaller pigeon -hawdc 

 {F. coluinharius) of North America, may be distinguished from other members 

 of the genus by the longitudinally streaked thighs and the nearly uniformly 

 coloured back, in which the feathers have only a median dark streak. Above, 

 the colour of the merlin is a uniform clear bluish grey, with the tail marked by one 

 broad band near the end. The head is dark slaty, with broad median stripes to the 

 feathers ; the forehead and sides of the face whitish, with narrow median lines ; the 

 ear-coverts greyish ; the throat white ; and the remainder of the under-parts white 

 tinged with rufous, with broad median black streaks, becoming narrower on the 

 thighs. In the young bird (shown on the lower figure of our illustration) the general 

 colour of the upper-parts is brown with a faint tinge of grey, and the feathers mar- 

 gined with sandy rufous ; while on the under-parts, save the throat, the whitish 

 feathers have very broad reddish brown streaks and black median stripes, the 

 thighs having smaller brown spots, and the lower part of the abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts being only sparsely marked. It is probable that very old female merlins 

 assume a blue plumage like the males. The adult male measures 10 inches, and the 

 female about 2 inches more. The merlin is an inhabitant of Europe and Northern 

 Asia, but extends southwards into India and China. An anonymous correspondent 

 of the Times observes that " on the bleak hills of Wales, round the Peak, and in 

 the wildest Midland heights, further north on the barren moors and bold bluffs of 

 Yorkshire, over the rugged and romantic ranges of Scotland, on the short turf of 

 the downs, in the mountain heather, by the slaty and granitic boulders of upheaved 

 rocks, the merlin has its home. Even in the desolate regions it aftects, no member 

 of the pariah family is free from attack : yet, like the other small falcons, it holds 

 its own against the destroying band, and manages to live on and do its appointed 

 work against all odds." In Britain the merlin usually nests on the ground, generally 

 on the open moors ; but in Lapland and other parts of the continent it connnonly 

 takes possession of the deserted nest of some other member of the family, while in 

 other cases it lays on a shelf of rock. When on the ground, scarcely any nest is 

 made. The eggs, which vary from four to six in number, are frequently of a 



