THE MERLIN. 53 



repose. After some time he seemed to awake from his slumbers, 

 and, discovering my intrusion, quickly decamped." The same 

 gentleman remarks, that a merlin which he once saw attacked by 

 a number of swallows, was by no means satisfied to put up with 

 their insults tamely, as a kestrel or a sparrow-hawk would have 

 done, but darted about after the tormentors, and descended upon 

 them from above in so furious a manner as quickly to put them 

 to flight. 



On March the 9th, 1832, when walking on the shore of Bel- 

 fast Bay, as the tide was flowing, I observed a merlin for some 

 time coursing above the uncovered banks, the edge of the waves 

 being the limit to his flight. This at once led me to believe he 

 was in search of prey, which was confirmed by his giving chase to 

 a large flock of dunlins (Tringa variabilis), in pursuit of which 

 he disappeared. The oldest of the "shore-shooters" in Belfast 

 Bay has often seen hawks, which were believed to be merlins, follow 

 and kill dunlins on the banks at low water. This occurred more 

 frequently in the autumn than at any other season. The merlin's 

 thus resorting to the sea-shore has very rarely been noticed by 

 authors: the weather was mild in the instances alluded to.* 

 Another shooter since assured me, that he has frequently seen the 

 merlin in autumn, and early in winter, about the beach of the 

 bay, sometimes even daily during a week. Its visits are, he be- 

 lieves, for the purpose of obtaining wounded birds ; but he has 

 likewise seen it single a dunlin from a flock and pursue it, though 

 not always with success. In one instance, he shot a merlin in the 

 act of destroying one of these birds. The black-headed gull (La- 

 rus ridibundus), too, he has seen pursued, though not killed, by 

 hawks here ; but the assailants of that bird, he remarks, may have 

 been peregrine falcons. The merlin is occasionally seen perched 

 on large stones, winch rise above the waters of the estuary. 



* Mr. Dunn, in his little work on Orkney and Shetland, already alluded to, remarks 

 of the merlin : — " I have frequently shot it from my hoat, while in the act of chasing 

 small birds on the water," p. 75. In the 3d vol. of his History of Brit. Birds, p. 322, 

 published in 1840, Mr. Macgillivray mentioned his having snot a merlin at Mussel- 

 burgh, that had just secured a sanderling, after along pursuit. It is the only shere- 

 bird noticed in th^work as pursued by this hawk. 



