30 MERLIN. 
with deep reddish brown, or greenish brown: they 
vary, however, much in colour. Some of the varieties 
are often similar to those of the Kestrel or Peregrine, 
others to those of the Sparrow-Hawk, but still more 
to those of the Hobby. They are perhaps rather 
smaller than the former, and also, in this variety, 
browner in colour, and more closely spotted with 
small dots. One has been known of a rich crimson 
red, blotted with a darker shade of the same. 
One variety is brown, prettily mottled all over with 
darker specks and small markings of the same. 
A second has a reddish tinge, marked in the same 
way, but the markings a very little larger. 
A third is of a yellowish hue, with a slight shade 
of rufous, marked similarly to the two preceding ones. 
