AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 21 



birds : — " A young Merlin was taken from a nest in 

 Rotts Wood, near Whiston, Hunts, about June 23rd, 

 1874, by a man named George Phillips, who took 

 it to the Rev. T. Woodruff, at whose house I often 

 saw and handled it, and knew that it really was a 

 Merlin ; the nest was in an oak tree and contained 

 five young nearly fledged." My friend Mr. Rooper 

 is so fond of and so well acquainted with our British 

 birds, that I feel convinced that there is no mistake 

 here. In the fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British 

 Birds,' vol. i. p. 76, I find it stated that in Lapland 

 the Merlin commonly breeds in trees ; and I have a 

 somewhat hazy recollection of having been informed 

 by the late Rev. James Boultbee (who was at the 

 time Rector of Barnwell) that he had obtained 

 young Merlins from the nest in Barnwell Wold, a 

 large wood belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, 

 about three miles from this house, — probably well 

 known to entomologists as a favourite locality for 

 the Purple Emperor [Apatura iris) and other scarce 

 butterflies, — w^here the Hobby formerly nested pretty 

 regularly. The Merlin is a very bold little bird, 

 and will fly at and occasionally kill birds of twice 

 his own w^eight, as is mentioned by Yarrell. I 

 myself have seen a pair of Merlins fly at an old 

 Blackcock which passed near their nest, and though 

 they did not kill him, they knocked him into the 

 heather, with the loss of many feathers, and so terri- 

 fied him that, though not seriously wounded, he all 

 but allowed us to catch him. The Merlin is easily 

 trained, and will take Larks, Blackbirds, Thrushes, 

 and even Pigeons, but requires a peculiar mode of 

 treatment — to be fed as much as possible upon live 

 birds, and allowed more liberty to exercise his wings 



