The Merlin
 Morris's British Birds 1891
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Merlin
Image Title: Merlin
Description: Merlin ( Falco columbarius)

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MERLIN.
CORWALCH, LLYMYSTEN, IN ANCIENT BRITISH.
Falco cssalon, PENNANT. MONTAGU. BEWICK. FLEMING.
Falco—To cut with a bill or hook.
AEsalon A species of Hawk, (Aristotle,) supposed to be the Merlin, or the Sparrow-Hawk.

Through an Eagle, by comparison with some of the East Indian species of Hawks, the Merlin is the smallest that occurs in this country. In spirit it is 'nulli secundus,' inferior to none, and was accordingly used in former times in falconry for the pursuit of birds even much larger than itself, which it would frequently kill by a single blow on the head, neck, or breast. The author of the 'Book of Falconrie' says that they were 'passing good Hawks, and verie skilful.' Unlike the Sparrow-Hawk and the Kestrel, if pursued by Swallows and other small birds, it has been known, instead of flying from them, to become in its turn the aggressor, and at once disperse them. Like the Hobby, it has been captured by its dashing through a pane in the window of a cottage, in pursuit of a yellow-hammer: not the first 'tuft hunter' who has split upon that rock.
This species appears to claim citizenship in all the four quarters of the globe. In Europe it is known even as far north as Iceland and Greenland, in the Ferroe Isles, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Siberia, Spain, and the Islands of the Mediterranean, Germany, and France; in North America; in Asia, in Asia Minor, India, Japan, Persia, and Palestine; and in Africa so far south as the Cape of Good Hope, from Algeria, Nubia, and Egypt. It is more frequently met with in the northern than in the southern parts of England, though in neither can it be said to be common. The former are its breeding districts. In Yorkshire, it has very frequently occurred, especially in the West-Riding, near Barnsley, and in other parts,—occasionally in Derbyshire.
In Sussex, it has been repeatedly noticed as a winter visitor in the wilder and less cultivated districts. In Berkshire, I once myself shot one, now many years ago. It was a beautiful female, flying up a brook down which I was walking—an unfortunate 'rencontre' for it,—and fell, apparently quite dead, as indeed it proved to have been; but so remarkable was the similarity of its plumage to the stones on which it had fallen at the side of the stream—a novel appropriation of its name of Stone Falcon—that I the less wondered at having before almost given up searching for it, and gone away with the belief that it had not been killed but only wounded and had run into some cover, than at finding it when I did. It is considered rare in Cornwall, (one was shot there in 1849, November 9th., near Falmouth, and one near Penryn,) Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Kent, one at Doddington, in 1840; Essex, and Norfolk. In Oxfordshire at Wroxton and King's Sutton, etc.
It breeds in Yorkshire, on the moors near Guisborough in Cleveland, as James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, has informed me, also in Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and in Norfolk, in Hockering wood, near Norwich, so the Rev. Granville Smith has written me word. So too it has in Hampshire, in the New Forest, and in Devonshire, on Exmoor, as also in Herefordshire, Essex, and Shropshire. It is uncommonly met with in the neighbourhood of Swinhope, Lincolnshire, as the Rev. R. P. Alington tells me. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns mentions one recorded by Graves as having been killed in Cambridgeshire, one was shot at Haddenham, December 6th., 1856. In Aberdeenshire, in East Lothian, and other parts of Scotland, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, it also breeds. In Ireland it is indigenous, both in the northern and southern parts, throughout the whole of the year, but would seem to be somewhat locally migratory. It breeds on the mountains of the counties of Londonderry, Tyrone, and Down, as also in those of Waterford, Cork, Tipperary, and Kerry. In Wales, on Cader Idris, and in other parts.
The Merlin is partially migratory in this country, being for the most part a constant resident in Scotland, Sutherlandshire, very frequently, etc., and the northern parts of England, but appearing to be only a winter visitant in the south. It has however, on one occasion, been known to breed in the county of Suffolk, and probably may have been overlooked in more frequent instances of the same kind in those wilder districts, such as Dartmoor, which are suitable to it.
From a habit it has of perching on stones, it has acquired the name of the Stone Falcon, and as such was formerly described as a distinct species. It must have a fondness for the practice, for it carries it out even on those rocks which are left partially prominent by the receding tide, when hawking, as it sometimes does, on the margin of the sea.
It is a very courageous bird—wild and shy, and according to Tem-minck, is able to endure a high degree of cold, and is described by him as being commonly found within the limits of the Arctic circle. It is easily tamed, though it never becomes very familiar, and was accordingly in former times employed in the chase. Except when the young are hatched, it is difficult, on account of its wariness, to be approached; it is only by accident that it is occasionally met with within gun-shot.
The Merlin flies low, and with great ease and celerity. It suddenly sweeps by, and is gone almost before you have had time to glance at it, gliding along the side of a hedge or wood, and then over, or into it, and sometimes affording a more lengthened view, by its flight over the open fields, or the wide moor, where it may be seen following its prey through many a devious track, according to the nature of the ground. In pursuit of prey, says Sir William Jardine, the Merlin does not often mount above it and rush down, as we have generally seen the Peregrine, but at once gives chase, following the victim through all its turns and windings to escape, and unless cover is at hand, is generally successful.
Its principal food consists of birds; and it attacks and slays those which are even double its own size, such as partridges, and also quails, plovers, and pigeons, as well as larks, linnets, starlings, sandpipers, snipes, chaffinches, blackbirds, swallows, thrushes, goldfinches, and others which are smaller; as also cockchaffers and other insects. In pursuit of shore birds, dunlins, ring dotterels, and others, it will course them to the edge of, and sometimes even over the water. It is so determined on and in the capture of its prey, that it is difficult to mate it leave that which it has secured, and which it often obtains by pouncing on it unawares, but also, as just said, in the open air. The lesser birds it captures from the ground, but those which are too large to be thus borne off, it can only surprise when on the wing. It frequently perches on a stone or crag, flitting from one to another, as if for the purpose of surveying all around it, and when a flock of small birds comes within its ken, it singles out one from the rest, and is not attracted from it to any of the others. A lark, pursued by one of these hawks, came from about a distance of a hundred yards to a gentleman who was shooting in company with his servant, and alighted close to their feet, in a state, at the time, of such exhaustion that it was unable even to close its wings.
The nest is generally, in this country at least, built on the ground on open moors or heaths, frequently on the side of a ravine, in a tuft of heath or projection of a rock or bank, and when this is the case, is composed of very scanty materials—a few sticks, with heather, grass, or moss-—the bare ground almost sufficing for the purpose. In other countries it appears, occasionally at all events, to be built in trees, and is then made of sticks, and lined with wool, the nest of some other bird being not unoften occupied. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands, it is placed among precipitous and inaccessible rocks.
The eggs are three, four, or five, in number; Bewick says six; and Temminck five or six. They are bluish white, blotted, particularly at the thicker end, with deep reddish brown or greenish brown. They vary, however, much in colour. Some of the varieties are often similar to those of the Kestrel or Peregrine, others to those of the Sparrow-Hawk, but still more to those of the Hobby. They are of course, however, rather smaller than the former, and also, in this variety, browner in colour and more closely spotted with small dots. One has been obtained of a rich crimson red, blotted with a darker shade of the same. One blotted with the like colour on a white ground, and another, of a cream colour, partially so with purple-red and violet. The female sits close at first, but if disturbed or alarmed more than once, becomes extremely shy. The male takes up a position near at hand on the top of some eminence, from whence he can perceive the approach of any intruder, of which he gives notice by shrill cries of alarm.
Montagu says that an instance has been known of a Merlin building in a deserted crow's nest.
The male and female differ generally but little in size, compared with others of the Hawks, and most other common birds.
Male; weight, from five to six ounces. Length, from eleven inches to a foot, or twelve inches and a half; (one described by Montagu was only ten inches long.) Bill, short, strong, pale blue at the base, blackish blue at the tip; cere, dull yellow; iris, dark brown; (one shot at Osberton, Nottinghamshire, and described by G. S. Foljambe, Esq., had the iris yellow.) Head, large, broad, and flat; forehead and sides of the head, greyish white—the latter lined with black. There is a greyish white band over the eye, margined beneath with black. Crown, dark bluish or brownish grey, each feather streaked with black in the centre. Neck, short and thick-set, dull yellowish red, encircled with a reddish brown ring, spotted or streaked with black. From the corners of the mouth descend on each side a few black streaks, forming, though faintly, the moustache borne by all the true Falcons. Nape, banded with pale red; chin, white; throat, white, or greyish, or buff white; breast, dull yellowish red, sometimes deep orange brown; the shafts and a spot towards the end, dark brown. Back, deep greyish blue, lighter towards the tail—the feathers streaked in the centre with black, as are all the other bluish feathers of the back.
The wings, which, when closed, reach from within an inch and a quarter to two inches of the end of the tail, and expand to about two feet four inches, have the primaries black, or blackish or bluish brown, tinged with grey—the outer margin of the first spotted with white, the inner webs spotted transversely with white; underneath they are of a paler colour, barred with white: the third feather is the longest, but the second is nearly as long; the fourth a little longer than the first; the fifth an inch shorter; secondaries, deep greyish blue, and curved inwards—the shafts black; tertiaries also greyish blue. Greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey—the shafts of the feathers black; greater and lesser under wing coverts, yellowish white, with dusky spots and streaks. The tail bluish grey; it generally has, but is sometimes without, from even only one, but commonly from three or five, to six, and, according to Pennant, eight, and even thirteen dark bands; viz: —in the proportion of six on the middle feathers, to eight (probably age is the cause of the gradual difference in their number,) on the side ones, but which merge apparently into the smaller-named number —the last being the largest and darkest. The tail feathers are twelve in number, being of nearly equal length, broad, and rounded: the tip is white, underneath it is barred with darker and lighter shades of grey, with the broad band and white tip. Legs, yellow, feathered in front more than one-third down, and reticulated. The feathers are rufous, with dusky streaks; toes, yellow; the first the shortest; the third the longest; the fourth a little longer than the second: the front ones are connected at the base by a short membrane; claws, black.
The female varies sometimes considerably from the male; weight, about nine ounces; length, about twelve inches and a half, occasionally as much as thirteen and a half or fourteen inches; bill, light leaden blue, tipped with black. From the angle of the mouth extends a band of brown, formed by the markings on the middle of the feathers; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; forehead, yellowish white; a yellowish line edged on the under side with blackish brown, extends over the eye; head, dark rufous brown, the feathers edged at the tip with red; crown, reddish brown, with dusky black streaks down the shafts of the feathers; neck, behind, yellowish white, the feathers tipped with brown: there is an indistinct ring round it of yellowish white, streaked and spotted with dusky brown. The nape reddish brown, inclining to rufous; chin and throat, white or yellowish white, the feathers on the side being tipped with brown; breast, pale reddish yellow, or brownish or yellowish white, marked with many oblong spots of dark brown, larger than those of the male; back, brown mixed with rufous, the shaft and centre of each feather being darker, and the edge tipped with red; greater wing coverts, brown, edged with dull yellowish white or light rufous, the centre of the feathers being grey; lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, bordered with rufous, the shafts being black. Primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brownish black, spotted with light red spots on both the webs, and edged with red, the tips the same colour of a paler shade. Greater and lesser under wing coverts, brownish red, spotted and edged with yellowish white. The tail, which is greyish brown, or dusky, has five bars of very pale reddish brown or yellowish white spots, and the tip banded with greyish white; the side feathers have two light bars at the base; upper tail coverts, reddish brown, edged with dull yellowish white; under tail coverts, white, with the exception of the feathers on the sides, which have each a line of brown. Legs, yellow, the long feathers streaked with brown, the shorter ones nearly white; toes, yellow; claws, black.
The young birds when fully fledged, most resemble the adult female, but are lighter in colour; the males however less so than the females, and tinged with blue on the back. The former gradually assume more blue, but the latter change less. The centre of the feathers in the immature birds is dark brown edged with rufous, instead of being marked in the centre with grey. Bill, as in the adults; cere, dull yellow. A yellowish line extends over the eye; iris, brown, but subject to variations of shade, according to Selby; forehead, yellowish white; head streaked on the sides, which are yellowish red, with brown, and a band of the latter colour descends from the angle of the mouth; neck, yellowish behind, the feathers tipped with brown; chin, yellowish white; throat, yellowish white, the shafts of the feathers brown; breast, pale reddish yellow, streaked longitudinally with brown; back dark brown, slightly tinged with blue, the feathers edged and marked with pale yellowish-red in obscure spots, and streaked in the centre with dark brown or black; greater wing coverts, spotted with light reddish spots, and tipped with the same; primaries, very dark brown, indis-tinctly spotted on the outer webs with pale yellowish red, and tipped with the same, but paler; secondaries, spotted in the same manner on both webs; tail, dark brown, barred with five distinct bands composed of pale reddish brown spots; the tip is reddish or greyish white: there are three other bars near the base; under tail coverts, partially streaked with a narrow brown line near the end; legs, dull yellow, the feathers marked with a brown streak.
The males vary in colour as they advance in age, the blue on the back being tinged with brown at first, and becoming gradually of a purer hue. In some specimens the breast is of a light yellowish red, and in others deep orange brown. In some the tail is without the dark bands, except the last and broadest one; and in others the middle feathers are without them, while they are apparent on the rest.
The females differ less than the males, but assume more of the character of the plumage of the latter, especially on the upper parts, as they advance in age.

"A Merlin sat upon her wrist, Held by a leash of silken twist.
And at her whistle, on her hand The Falcon took his favourite stand,
Closed his dark wing, relaxed his eye, Nor though un-hooded sought to fly."
The Lady of the Lake.

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