In the north of England and Scotland, if fortune favours, 
you may find the merlin, our smallest British falcon: the 
male scarcely exceeds a blackbird in size. Moors and the 
heath-covered brows of sea-cliffs are perhaps its favourite 
haunts. Its flight is swift, buoyant, and low. Unlike the 
hobby, gliding movements are not conspicuous. The male 
is of a slate-blue, and has a broad black band across the tail. 
The female is larger than her mate, dark brown on the back 
and wings, and white, streaked with brown, below. It feeds 
almost entirely on small birds, but varies this diet with beetles 
and dragon-flies. 
Wherever there are deer-forests in Scotland, even to-day— 
but nowhere else in Great Britain—you may count on seeing 
the golden eagle. And it is a sight to gladden the eyes. Its 
great size, broad wings, and widespread, upturned primaries 
are unmistakable, when seen on the wing—and it is rarely 
that you will see it else. 
Those who cannot contrive to visit the haunts of the 
golden eagle may find ample compensation in watching the 
flight of the common buzzard in Wales, the Devonian penin- 
sula, and the Lake District. Though time was when it 
might be seen all over England, wherever woods abounded. 
Its flight, when hunting, strikes one as somewhat slow and 
heavy. In fine weather, however, as if for the mere delight 
of the exercise, it will mount heavenwards in great sweeping 
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