Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/77

 repose. After some time he seemed to awake from his slumbers, and, discovering my intrusion, quickly decamped." The same gentleman remarks, that a merlin which he once saw attacked by a number of swallows, was by no means satisfied to put up with their insults tamely, as a kestrel or a sparrow-hawk would have done, but darted about after the tormentors, and descended upon them from above in so furious a manner as quickly to put them to flight.

On March the 9th, 1832, when walking on the shore of Bel- fast Bay, as the tide was flowing, I observed a merlin for some time coursing above the uncovered banks, the edge of the waves being the limit to his flight. This at once led me to believe he was in search of prey, which was confirmed by his giving chase to a large flock of dunlins (Tringa variabilis), in pursuit of which he disappeared. The oldest of the "shore-shooters" in Belfast Bay has often seen hawks, which were believed to be merlins, follow and kill dunlins on the banks at low water. This occurred more frequently in the autumn than at any other season. The merlin's thus resorting to the sea-shore has very rarely been noticed by authors: the weather was mild in the instances alluded to.* Another shooter since assured me, that he has frequently seen the merlin in autumn, and early in winter, about the beach of the bay, sometimes even daily during a week. Its visits are, he be- lieves, for the purpose of obtaining wounded birds ; but he has likewise seen it single a dunlin from a flock and pursue it, though not always with success. In one instance, he shot a merlin in the act of destroying one of these birds. The black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus), too, he has seen pursued, though not killed, by hawks here ; but the assailants of that bird, he remarks, may have been peregrine falcons. The merlin is occasionally seen perched on large stones, winch rise above the waters of the estuary.

Mr. Dunn, in his little work on Orkney and Shetland, already alluded to, remarks of the merlin : — "I have frequently shot it from my boat, while in the act of chasing small birds on the water," p. 75. In the 3d vol. of his History of Brit. Birds, p. 322, published in 1840, Mr. Macgillivray mentioned his having snot a merlin at Mussel- burgh, that had just secured a sanderling, after along pursuit. It is the only shere- bird noticed in the work as pursued by this hawk.