THE MERLIN. 117 



line over eye creamy-white ; rest of fore-head and crown dark 

 Thrown more or less washed rufous -brown and streaked black ; 

 nuchal band as male but usually whiter or not so rufous ; mantle 

 -and scapulars dark brown, feathers slightly tipped rufous and with 

 rufous spots or incomplete bars which are partially concealed, 

 and fine dark shaft-lines, often a grey tinge on mantle and scapulars ; 

 back and rump greyer and sometimes slate-grey with dark shaft- 

 lines and often less rufous spots or bars ; upper tail -coverts paler, 

 tipped whitish and with whitish bars ; cheeks and ear-coverts 

 white to buffish-white streaked brown with a blackish line in front 

 of eye and an indication of narrow dark brown moustachial stripe ; 

 ohin and throat white to creamy white, sometimes with a few fine 

 brown streaks ; rest of under -parts same but with wide rufous- 

 brown streaks and black shaft-lines, feathers of flanks with irregular 

 broad bars of brown, centre of belly, tibia and under tail-coverts 

 with few and fine streaks ; under wing-coverts and axillaries as 

 male but usually with less white and more rufous -brown ; tail- 

 feathers dark brown tipped creamy -white and barred buffish-white 

 to rufous -buff, barring on central pair being usually less buff and 

 sometimes dull ashy-grey ; primaries, secondaries and primary- 

 coverts dark brown tipped buffish-white, outer webs with rufous 

 to pale buff spots and inner webs closely barred rufous, becoming 

 paler on inner edge ; wing-coverts as scapulars and mantle. Moult 

 as male. Summer. — Body-moult as in male after which upper -parts 

 are usually rather more tinged grey than in winter. 



Nestling (Plate 3). — At first rather thinly covered with rather 

 short down (a) creamy -white and some very short tufts of down 



(b) white. Later thickly covered with longer and coarser down 



(c) which replaces down (b) (exactly as in Peregrine, see p. 108). 

 Down (c) brown-grey on upper-parts, paler grey on under-parts 

 especially on chin, throat, tibia and belly where it is grey only at 

 base and otherwise white. 



Juvenile. Male and female. — Like adult female and so far 

 as I can discover usually indistinguishable but never so grey 

 especially on rump as some adult females. 



First winter. Male and female. — Like juvenile. 



First summer. — The juvenile body -plumage frequently com- 

 mences to moult in Feb., Mar. and April, but wings and tail do 

 not appear to be moulted before July and frequently moult is not 

 complete until November, i.e. when bird is about 17 months old. 

 When juvenile plumage is completely moulted males are indis- 

 tinguishable from adult males and females from adult females. 



Measurements and structure.— <J wing 193-210 mm., tail 116-127, 

 tarsus 35-39, bill from cere 12-13 (12 measured). ? wing 210-233. 

 Primaries : 2nd and 3rd lougest, 1st 20-24 mm. shorter, 4th 14-20 

 shorter, 5th 26-35 shorter ; 2nd and 3rd emarginated outer webs, 

 1st and 2nd very abruptly emarginated and attenuated near tip 

 of inner web. Rest of structure as in Peregrine. 



