34 BRITISH BIRDS. 



FALCO iESALON. 

 MERLIN. 



(Plate 4.) 



Accipiler litho-felco, ^r/ss. Orii. i. p. 349 (1760j. 



Ac-cipiter£esalon, Briss. 0;-«. i. p. 882 (1760) ; et auctortunplurimorum— (GmcZm), 



{Teinmiiick), {Kaumunii), (Oould), {Yairell), {SchlegeT), {Newtm), {Heuylin), 



(Dresser'), &c. 

 Accipiter merillu,;, Qerini, Oni. Meth. Biy. i. p. 51, pis. xviii., xix. (1767). 

 Falco sesalon (Briss.), Tunstdl, Orn. Brit. p. 1 (1771). 

 Falco regiiliis*, Pali. Reis. ii. Anhaug, p. 707 (1773). 

 Falco lithofaloo (Briss.), Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 278 (17b6j. 

 Falco smiriUus, Savign. Ois. de I'EyypIv, p. 40 (1810). 

 Falco sibiricus, Shaio, Gen. Zool. vii, pt. 1, p. 207 (1809). 

 Falco CEOsius, irolf, Tasckenh. i. p. 60 (1810). 

 Hypotriorcliis fesalon (Briss.), Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 314. 

 ^salon sesalon (Briss.), Kuup, NatiirJ. Si/st, p. 40 (182y). 

 .aSsalou lithofalco (Briss.), Bonap. Eev. et May. cle Zool. 1854, p. 536. 

 ^Esalon reg'ulus (rail.), Blyth, Ibis, 18iJ3, p. 9. 

 Lithofalco issalou (Briss.), Hume, liuiiyh Notes,!, p. 80 (1869). 



The Merlin is one of the smallest of our native Falcons^ yet possessed of 

 marvellous rapidity of flight and courage. It is a bird^ too^ of no small 

 amount of interest to the ornithologist;, partly fi'om the many conflicting 

 statements regarding its habits, and partly owing to the wild grand nature 

 of its haunts. The Merlin breeds throughout the mountaiuous districts 

 of Great Britain, from the moorlands of Derbyshire northwards to the 

 Outer Hebrides and the Shetlands, partly retiring to the lowlands and 

 southern counties in winter, where a few pairs casually remain to breed. 



The same remarks apply to this species in Ireland. It breeds through- 

 out the island in the mountain districts ; and numbers seek the lowlands 

 in winter. This species is confined to the northerly portions of the Old 

 World. It breeds throughout North Europe, Iceland, and the Faroes ; 

 and a specimen was caught at sea by Mr. E. Whymper, on his voyage to 

 Greenland, in May 1867, in lat. 57° 41' N. and long. 53° 23' W., the 



* This is another instance of the folly of still adhering to the law of priority, which has 

 done so much mischief to the study of hirds. Sharpe, in his ' C'atalogue of the Birds in the 

 British Museum,' adopts the name of F. reynlus for the Merlin. Dresser was fortunately 

 able to reinstate the name in all but universal use by discovering that Tunstall, in a mere 

 catalogue of British birds (which liad the good fortune to be pubhshed two years before 

 Pallas wrote), had used Brisson's name. The next ornithological revolutionist wiU 

 undoubtedly reject both these names in favour of that of Gerini (which is unquestionably 

 the earliest clearly defined name known at present), if in the meantime the law of priority 

 docs not meet with the fate it deserves. 



