KESTREL 139 
heather on the northern hills; it was ‘a hole lined with 
ling and a few sticks, and contained four eggs. 
The Merlin is recorded at Langness lighthouse four times 
in 1885, 14th February, 29th March (two each date), and 
16th August and 26th September (singly). 
In the British Isles this is a northern and western 
species, 
Merlins breed in Down, Antrim, and especially in the 
wilds of Donegal ; also in Galloway, where, however, they 
are more frequent at other seasons. In north-western 
England they nest in small, and in Cumberland at least 
decreasing, numbers on the fells and coast mosses, and 
frequent the shore in autumn and winter. The Merlin 
breeds also in Anglesea. It appears more or less commonly 
(for a bird of its habits) both as a nesting and migrant 
species on the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, and Orkney. 
TINNUNCULUS ALAUDARIUS (Gmelin). 
KESTREL. 
This is one of our characteristic birds, the Manx coast 
abounding in localities which suit it. At short intervals 
along our rock-bound shores a pair of these beautiful 
Hawks may be met with, and soon attract notice by 
their graceful motions and keen cries. The Kestrel loves a 
rock half covered by ivy and with grassy ledges, where in 
some earthy hollow sheltered by the herbage the richly 
coloured eggs are laid usually early in May. 
In Sulby Glen, as Mr. Cottier tells me, the large old 
quarries, where so much capital has been wasted and spots 
