3 i8 FALCONRY 



on the moors of Yorkshire and the northern counties. Their 

 nest is placed on the ground among the heather, and they are 

 late breeders, the young being rarely fit to take before the 

 third week in July. Wild merlins are also caught at Valkens- 

 waard on the autumn migration, in the same manner as pere- 

 grines, special nets and lures being arranged for them. Those 

 taken from the nest are easily reared with sufficient care. They 

 should be fed three times a day on the tenderest possible beef, 

 with all fat and gristle cut away ; an occasional change to pigeon, 

 chicken or rabbit is desirable. When merlins are full-grown they 

 must be kept as much as possible upon birds, trapped ones in 

 preference to those that are shot ; but if a shot bird be given, an 

 abundance of casting must be given with it in case any shot 

 corns should be swallowed. They can be flown at hack, and 

 if they are likely to be flown when trained near the place 

 where they were hacked, it is a great advantage to rear them 

 thus, as a lost hawk will then return home of herself very often. 

 But it is impossible to fly them at hack together with pere- 

 grines, for the latter, being much more forward than the 

 merlins, are easily able to take them when first put out, and 

 would be very likely to kill them. Care must also be taken 

 not to have peregrines sitting out on blocks near where merlins 

 are hacked ; they are bold, confiding little hawks, and are very 

 likely to drop down by the side of the peregrine, attracted 

 perchance by some food, or else for company, and in that way 

 are likely to be killed. 



A very good way both to keep and rear merlins is to bring 

 them up altogether in a good large room or a loft ; there must 

 be a perch or two for them, and all corners should be rounded 

 off as much as possible to prevent injury to the feathers. The 

 bars to the windows must be fixed perpendicularly and not 

 horizontally, so that the hawks cannot fly at the windows and 

 cling to them. A very little carrying will soon accustom the 

 merlins to fly to the hand of anyone they know well in order 

 to be fed, and this with a little calling to the lure is really all 

 the trainirg they require. We have brought up birds in this 



