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and these two families appeared to be dwelling in perfect harmony. I am indebted to 

 Mr. Seebohm, of Sheffield, for the following notes on this species, which is tolerably common 

 on the moors near that town. 



The Merlin, Mr. Seebohm writes, " is a regular summer migrant to the moors of South 

 Yorkshire and North Derbyshire, where they would commit sad havoc among the young Grouse 

 if they were not relentlessly persecuted by the gamekeepers, who keep a close watch upon their 

 well-known breeding-places. The Merlin arrives upon the moors jtowards the end of March or 

 beginning of April, and feeds principally upon the smaller birds frequenting the district (the 

 Meadow-Pipit, Grey Linnet, Twite, &c), which his rapid powers of flight enable him easily to 

 fly down without resorting to the manoeuvres which the clumsier Sparrow-Hawk is compelled to 

 take advantage of. These moors are the constant breeding-place of three species of Hawk — the 

 Kestrel, the Sparrow-Hawk, and the Merlin. The Kestrel hovers over the ground at a consi- 

 derable height, and pounces down on a mouse, and occasionally a lizard or a young Grouse, as 

 the pellets they cast up abundantly testify. The Sparrow-Hawk skims over hill-tops or hedges, 

 or round rocks, and comes upon its prey unawares. The Merlin, on the contrary, fairly flies it 

 down. The site selected for a nest varies in different localities, especially amongst birds of prey. 

 On the moors in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, however, the Sparrow-Hawk invariably builds 

 in a tree, the Kestrel as invariably chooses a cleft in a rock, and the Merlin always builds upon 

 the ground. The date of nidification is evidently chosen with relation to an abundant supply of 

 food for the young, as in the Cyclades Eleonora's Falcon postpones its operations until August, 

 so that the young may be fed upon the flocks of Quails returning southward on their autumn 

 migration ; the Merlin lays its eggs about the middle of May, so that the voracious young may 

 be fed upon young Grouse. A slight hollow is chosen amongst the tall ling ; whatever roots or 

 dry grass may chance to be upon the spot are scratched into the rudiments of a nest ; and the 

 only materials actually selected by the bird appear to be a few slender twigs of ling to form the 

 outside of the structure, and which are generally broken from the heather overhanging the nest. 

 The site is usually sloping down to a stream, and commanding a good view of the moor ; and a 

 patch of heather some couple of hundred yards square has often contained a Merlin's nest every 

 year for the last dozen years, whilst no other breeding-place could be found nearer than eight or 

 ten miles. There would be nothing extraordinary in this if it could be proved that the same 

 pair, or their descendants, annually visited and occupied the same breeding-station ; they might 

 easily be supposed to have obtained a vested right in the estate, and to have defended it success- 

 fully against all comers. There are two of these breeding-places on the Sheffield moors — one 

 near Ashopton, and the other near Stimes ; and I am well acquainted with the gamekeepers in 

 both localities. They agree in telling me that every year they shoot or trap one or both of the 

 parent birds, generally both, and that in no case during the last ten years have they ever allowed 

 the young birds to get away. If one of the birds is shot before they have begun to breed, the 

 remaining one soon gets another mate ; but later on in the summer this is not the case. The 

 only way in which to account for the selection every year of the same locality by a fresh pair of 

 birds seems to be to suppose that the Merlins migrate en masse, and that as they pass each 

 recognized breeding-place, if the former occupants are not there to take possession, another pair 

 immediately occupy it. The facts of the case seem to warrant the conclusion that the selected 



