52 FALCONIDJE. 



Kerry .* There can be little doubt of the merlin's frequenting, 

 generally, the mountainous parts of the country suited to it. The 

 nests, by all who had seen them, were said to have been invari- 

 ably on the ground among the heath.f This species, though 

 breeding regularly in the south of Ireland, is said to be rare, and 

 only seen in winter in the southern English counties of Devon 

 and Cornwall. J 



At the approach of winter, both the adult and immature mer- 

 lins descend to the low grounds, where they sometimes remain 

 until spring is far advanced. The 10th of September is the 

 earliest date of its occurrence, to an accurate observer, in the 

 more cultivated districts of Wexford. About Belfast, I have 

 known it to appear so early as the end of July ; and so late in 

 spring as the 17th of April. There may not improbably be a 

 limited migration of merlins to our lower grounds at the beginning 

 of winter, more, I think, being seen during this season than are 

 bred in Ireland. 



Mr. Poole communicated the following note, dated March 7 th, 

 1848: — "A merlin has taken up his residence in a small grove 

 near my house during the past winter, and at any time after dusk 

 I can be sure of finding him there, generally in or near the same 

 tree. He is remarkably tame, and on being startled, merely flies 

 into a neighbouring tree ; even after firing two barrels at him, he 

 pitched again in the same grove. I once took, as I believed, a 

 most deadly aim at this bird in the dusk, and on going to the base 

 of the tree to pick him up as a matter of certainty, was astonished 

 to find that he had never left the spot at which he was fired at, 

 but remained quietly perched there, about twelve or fifteen feet 

 above my head, apparently in the quiet enjoyment of his night's 



* Mr. T. F. Neligan. 

 t Temminck notices the merlin as breeding in trees, and Mr. Hewitson, when in 

 Norway, had the eggs brought to him from a tree ; he subsequently found one of 

 their nests himself, near the top of a tall spruce fir. In Dunn's Ornithologist's 

 Guide to Orkney and Shetland, (published in 1837,) it is stated, that "like the pe- 

 regrine, it chooses the most inaccessible parts of the rocks for breeding places," 

 p. 75. The merlin and peregrine falcon were the only species of hawks met with by 

 the author in those islands. 



X Yarrell, Brit. Birds. 



