212 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



desired, though it has never obtained full power of flight. 

 Other Falcons have from time to time frequented the same fine 

 stretch of coverts, probably attracted by the abundance of 

 Wood pigeons. 



HOBBY. 



Falco subbuteo, L. 



This beautiful little hawk so rarely straggles to the N.W. of 

 England that I can only recall examining two local specimens. 

 They are in adult male dress, and were killed in Cumberland. 

 Mr. Sawer of Threlkeld shot one of them at Castle Eigg in 

 1864. The second Hobby was shot in the neighbourhood of 

 Edenhall. The Hobby has not been detected in Westmorland, 

 nor has it been recorded from Furness. 



MERLIN. 



Falco cesalon, Tunstall. 



Within a comparatively recent period the Merlin was still a 

 common bird on many moors in the centre of Lakeland, as 

 well as on the equally attractive wastes of the Debateable Land ; 

 mais nous avons changd tout cela. Even during the last nine years 

 the species has lost ground rapidly, for there are few shootings 

 upon which this high-plucked Falcon is not treated as ' vermin.' 

 Upon Walney Island or the Saltings of the English Solway you 

 may sometimes see a pretty flight of the Merlin, which in 

 autumn feeds on Dunlins and the smaller marsh birds. In the 

 breeding season the birds feed their young almost exclusively on 

 such moorland species as Yellow Buntings, Wheatears, Meadow 

 Pipits. They possess a strong attachment for the hereditary 

 breeding-places of their kind. One small moss used to hold a 

 pair of Merlins every year. If you went there in March, you 

 might see them toying playfully together. At the end of May 

 the female had generally begun to lay her red or orange eggs in 

 a scratching in the heather, which she usually lined with a few 

 stems of dry grass. Very picturesque are most of the Merlin's 

 haunts. Take, for example, a large moss near the Solway Firth, 

 on which the Merlin tries to breed every year. Most of the 

 moss is decorated with Butterfly Orchids; the Cross-leaved 



