It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and only marked as occurring
in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum.


7. MERLIN. _Falco aesalon_,[5] Bris., 1766. French, "Faucon
Emérillon."--The pretty little Merlin is a much more common autumnal
visitant to the Islands than the Hobby, but, like the Peregrine, the
majority of instances are young birds of the year which visit the
Islands on their autumnal migration. When I was in Guernsey in November,
1875, two Merlins, both young birds, were brought in to Mr. Couch's.
Both were shot in the Vale, and I saw a third near Cobo, but did not
shoot it. This also was a young bird. In some years Merlins appear to be
more numerous than in others, and this seems to have been one of the
years in which they were most numerous. Unlike the Hobby, however, the
Merlin does occasionally visit the Islands in the spring, as I saw one
at Mr. Jago's, the bird-stuffer in Guernsey, which had been killed at
Herm in the spring of 1876. This is now in the collection of Mr.
Maxwell, the present owner of Herm. Though the Merlin visits the Islands
both in the spring and autumn, I do not know that there is any instance
of its having remained to breed, neither do I know of an occurrence
during the winter. In the 'Zoologist' for 1875 Mr. Couch, in a
communication dated November 29th, 1874, says--"A Merlin--a female--was
shot in the Marais, which had struck down a Water Rail a minute or two
before it was shot. After striking down the Rail the Merlin flew into a
tree, about ten yards from which the man who shot it found the Rail
dead. He brought me both birds. The skin of the Rail was broken from the
shoulder to the back of the skull."

The more common prey, however, of the Merlin during the time it remains