252 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



in this district, and must have been one of the 

 early spring migrants, for I shot a female on 

 April 19. It was impossible to walk on the fells 

 without meeting this bold and pretty little hawk, 

 which I have even seen chasing the ptarmigan. I 

 never found the nest of the merlin here anywhere 

 but on the ground, either on a bare cliff or in the 

 heather, always on tolerably high fells. The first 

 nest which I took was on June 9. When first 

 laid, the eggs of the merlin have a beautiful violet- 

 red tinge, with red-brown spots ; this, however, 

 soon fades, and they assume a red-brown ground 

 colour, with dirty brown spots. It is said by the 

 Laps sometimes to build in a tree. The number 

 of eggs appear to vary from four to six ; and so 

 much do they resemble those of the kestrel, 

 although, perhaps, in general a very little smaller, 

 that when I have mixed a lot I should never have 

 been able to separate them if each egg had not 

 been numbered. I have often been struck with 

 the great difference in size that there is between 

 many of the old female merlins that we kill. 



The kestrel (F. tinnunculus, Lin. ; " torn falk," 

 Sw.), and the sparrow-hawk (Accipiter nisus, Nils.; 

 " sparl hok," Sw.), were both common here, as 

 well as the goshawk (Astur palumbarius, Bechst. ; 

 " techuon falle," Lap ; " duff hok," Sw.), but I was 

 never lucky enough to obtain the nest of this latter 



