i86 
DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 
Merlin. 
lesson, and makes a good bag. The quail or partridge is allowed a good start, 
the turumti being held up so as to eye the receding bird, and then thrown in the 
direction of the latter, with some force, shooting off at once, more like a dart than 
anything else, at the quarry.” 
The hobby (F. subbuteo ) is one of the most elegant of the British 
falcons. It belongs to a group in which the thighs are perfect^ 
uniform; their colour in this species being rufous, while the throat and breast are 
white, and the latter marked with black stripes. Above, the general colour is dark 
slaty grey, tending to black on the head. The length is 11^ inches in the male and 
13| in the female. The hobby is a migratory species, ranging over Europe and 
Northern Asia, and extending into India and North China, while in winter it 
journeys to South Africa. By no means numerous in Britain, it is still not un¬ 
common in the inland wooded and cultivated districts of the south of England. 
In addition to preying on small birds, it also feeds on dragon-flies and beetles, and 
is thus a benefactor to the farmer. 
Our last representative of the typical falcons is the well-known 
merlin (F. cesalon), which, together with the smaller pigeon-hawk 
(F. columbarius ) of North America, may be distinguished from other members 
of the genus by the longitudinally streaked thighs and the nearly uniformly 
coloured back, in which the feathers have only a median dark streak. Above, 
the colour of the merlin is a uniform clear bluish grey, with the tail marked by one 
broad band near the end. The head is dark slaty, with broad median stripes to the 
feathers; the forehead and sides of the face whitish, with narrow median lines; the 
ear-coverts greyish; the throat white; and the remainder of the under-parts white 
tinged with rufous, with broad median black streaks, becoming narrower on the 
thighs. In the young bird (shown on the lower figure of our illustration) the general 
colour of the upper-parts is brown with a faint tinge of grey, and the feathers mar¬ 
gined with sandy rufous; while on the under-parts, save the throat, the whitish 
feathers have very broad reddish brown streaks and black median stripes, the 
thighs having smaller brown spots, and the lower part of the abdomen and under 
tail-coverts being only sparsely marked. It is probable that very old female merlins 
assume a blue plumage like the males. The adult male measures 10 inches, and the 
female about 2 inches more. The merlin is an inhabitant of Europe and Northern 
Asia, but extends southwards into India and China. An anonymous correspondent 
of the Times observes that “ on the bleak hills of Wales, round the Peak, and in 
the wildest Midland heights, further north on the barren moors and bold bluffs of 
Yorkshire, over the rugged and romantic ranges of Scotland, on the short turf of 
the downs, in the mountain heather, by the slaty and granitic boulders of upheaved 
rocks, the merlin has its home. Even in the desolate regions it affects, no member 
of the pariah family is free from attack; yet, like the other small falcons, it holds 
its own against the destroying band, and manages to live on and do its appointed 
work against all odds.” In Britain the merlin usually nests on the ground, generally 
on the open moors; but in Lapland and other parts of the continent it commonly 
takes possession of the deserted nest of some other member of the family, while in 
other cases it lays on a shelf of rock. When on the ground, scarcety any nest is 
made. The eggs, which vary from four to six in number, are frequently of a 
