THE MERLIN. 
51 
county of Wicklow. My informant knew the species of birds so 
well, that the individual in question must doubtless have been 
either the Falco subbuteo or F. rujlpes ; probably the latter, as a 
flight of them appeared in England that year. 
Yery few specimens of F. rufipes , — a native chiefly of the more 
eastern half of temperate Europe, — have been taken in England, 
and the first on record, was procured in 1830. Their second ap- 
pearance in that country was in 1832, in which year the first 
mentioned specimen was obtained in Ireland. The species has 
not been met with in Scotland. 
THE MERLIN. 
j Falco cesalon, Gmel. 
Is indigenous both in the north and south of the island. 
It breeds about Claggan, in the county of Antrim; and its 
nest, as well as that of the marsh and hen harrier, has been 
found on the ground, among the heath, by the gamekeeper in va- 
rious years. On the Mounterlowney and other mountains of 
Londonderry and Tyrone, some of my sporting friends have met 
with their nests, and young birds have been brought thence to Bel- 
fast, to W. Sinclaire, Esq., who in due time trained them to the 
pursuit of larks and snipes. In Donegal, the merlin is occasion- 
ally met with in summer, but more commonly in winter, on and 
after the first week of October.* The intelligent gamekeeper at 
Tolly more Park (Down), states that this species breeds regularly 
in the mountains of Mourne, where, in the summer of 1836 (when 
the information was supplied), he saw four of their nests. The 
young have frequently been brought from the neighbourhood of 
Clonmel (Tipperary), to Mr. R. Davis, jun., of that town; as 
they have likewise been from the vicinity of Youghal (Cork) to 
Mr. R. Ball. A nest “in the Commeragh mountains (Waterford) 
was merely a slight depression in the peaty soil, arched over with 
heather, and situated on the edge of an enormous detached rock, 
near the foot of the mountain.” t The species is common in 
* Mr. J. V. Stewart. + Mr. J. Poole. 
E 2 
