108 f a l c o n .
Place.
bird are o f a dirty yellowifh white, perpendicularly ftreaked with
brown: the chin very pale, without marks,: the vent and thighs,
the fame: tail chelnut, barred-with black.; the bars are ten or,
eleven in number, but are not complete, as they do not touch
the fhaft, being only, as. it were, a tranfverfe, or rather oblique*
mark acrofs each web,, but appear as bands, till the feathers are-
extended: the tail beneath is.banded.with whitifh, and black:,
the legs yellow: claws black.
This was defcribed from a fpecimen in the collection of Cap--
tain Davies, who.brought it from.New-Tork.
93-
V a r . B.
CARJBBEE
M.
L ’Emerillon des-Antilles, Brif. orn, i. p. 38^, N° 24,'
Efmerillon Gry. Gry, Raii Syn. p. 19. N° 3.
Du Tertre Hiß. Jcs Antilles, 2. p. 253.
D e s c r i p t io n .
' J 'H I S bird is very little bigger than.a ThruJh. It is rufous .
above, fpotted with black: beneath white, fp.otted longi^
tudinally with black.
It inhabits the Antilles : called there Gry Gry.
M. Briffon doubts this being different from the other Merlin,
and on his authority I place it as. a variety.
M . du Tertre fays, that his bird preys only on Lizards and Graff-’
hoppers, and now and then on very young chickens.
t'EfmeriUob
I?EfmeriHon desFauconniers, B u f. e if. i. p. 288. t. 19.
L’Emerillon, P I . m l. 468.
93-
V a r . C.
FALCONERSi
M.
^pHIS bird, according to M. de Buffon, is not the Merlin o f
naturalifts, but known, by that name among falconers, and:
has not been particularly noticed nor well j defcribed by any one
hitherto. He fays it.is like an Hobby in figure, but has fhorter D ESCRIPTXON*
wings, and it much more refembles the Stone Falcon, both as to fize.
and length, colours, &c. fo as to make it rather doubtful whether
thofe two be not only varieties. A fingularity too prefents itfelf
in this bird, which is, that both male and female are of the fame
ftze, a thing unufual in this genus. He fays likewife that it is a.
very courageous bird, attacking not only Larks, but Quails and
Partridges. Notwithftanding all this, M. de Buffon quotes Br. Zool. RanaaKs.,-
folio edit. A. .12. for a figure, feeming to prove his Merlin, and
that of Mr. Pennant, to be the fame.
Mr. Salerne * gives a probable reafon for this confufion among
the Merlins, which arifes from the bird-catchers calling every
bird under the fize of a Buzzard by the name of Merlin; and in
this kingdom I have as often found all the fmaller kinds of
Hawks called by the name of Sparrow Hawk, without diftinftion.
I have mentioned thus much, as I believe the Merlin is not
very common in England, and confequently but little known. I .
do not know M. de Buffon’s bird.
• ®rn* J>, 16.
Fak® >