88 



6 



a specimen. Sever tzoff speaks of it as occurring during summer in North-eastern and South- 

 eastern Turkestan, and during winter in the north- and south-western portions of that country. 

 During the winter it is met with to an altitude of about 4000 feet, and during passage occurs 

 even as high as from 10,000 to 14,000 feet. He speaks (/. c.) of a subspecies as occurring in 

 Turkestan ; but I do not think, judging from his description, that it is specifically different from 

 the common Merlin. 



Both Von Middendorff and Dr. G. Radde record it from Siberia. The former says that it 

 arrived at Aldan about the end of April, and breeds near Udskoj-Ostrog ; and Dr. Radde 

 considers it rather uncommon in Siberia, and adds that it has not been observed on the Lower 

 Amoor; it only passes through the elevated steppes of Mongolia during migration; and he 

 says that he observed young birds at the Tarei-nor from the end of August to the middle of 

 September. It has been obtained in China by Mr. Swinhoe, who records it from Amoy, Pekin, 

 and Chefoo. In America it does not occur, being replaced by a very closely allied species (Falco 

 columbarius), which differs merely in having only two bands less on the tail than our Merlin, 

 being in other respects almost precisely like that species. 



For its size the Merlin is certainly one of the boldest and gamest of the Falcons. Exceed- 

 ingly swift on the wing, it is able to catch most of the small birds, and subsists chiefly on these 

 and small mammals ; but it is also said to feed, to some extent, on insects. It will attack and 

 kill larger birds than itself; and Mr. R. Gray says that he has more than once noticed Merlins 

 frequenting the heart of the city of Glasgow, where they feed chiefly on the Pigeons, which are 

 numerous. It frequently haunts the shores and marshy localities, where it creates no little 

 havoc amongst the numerous Sandpipers which frequent these places, and will attend the 

 sportsman when he is shooting in order to take its share of the game ; Lord Lilford says that 

 when shooting near the mouth of the Butrinto river, in Albania, he has seen as many as five 

 wounded Snipe carried off by a Merlin in an hour. In the days when falconry was one of the 

 most highly esteemed of field-sports the Merlin was greatly used, being, however, looked on as 

 more particularly a lady's Falcon. It is, perhaps, only surpassed by the Hobby in swiftness. 

 Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick, in their well-known work on falconry, say that the strongest 

 females may be trained to fly Pigeons admirably, and, from their small size and the way in 

 which they follow every turn and shift of the quarry, are better adapted for this chase than the 

 Peregrine. Referring to its dexterity on the wing they write as follows : — " We once saw a 

 Merlin in pursuit of a Swallow, which chase continued as far as the eye could trace it, the 

 Hawk being about a yard behind its game, and following the most rapid evolutions of the 

 Swallow, as if moved by the same impulse." They say that the Sky-Lark affords the finest 

 flight for the Merlin, and for this chase it was used by our ancestors. 



In most localities the Merlin places its nest on the ground ; but it also breeds in trees in 

 wooded places, and in Southern Norway it is said by Mr. Collett to deposit its eggs in an 

 abandoned nest of Corvus comix, the inside being partly filled up with moss by the new 

 occupants, whereby the eggs are crowded into a corner ; but in the naked coast regions of that 

 country it invariably places its nest on the ground. Mr. Collett informs me that Mr. Hartman, 

 the botanist, found a nest of the Merlin on the Dovre, placed on a pine, and in the same tree 

 was a Fieldfare's nest. The Merlin's nest contained young, and that of the Fieldfare also ; 



