Toby, a twenty-first-century character from A Darker Magic This Way Comes, describes Merlin’s two birds, his jackdaw and his merlin hawk as “Merlin’s drones” and he believes he has every reason for calling them that. Merlin, a fifth-century magician, and genius is puzzled by the name ‘drones.’ “Why do you call them drones? My beautiful birds do not drone on like a bagpipe. They sing and then sit quietly on my shoulders unless they are hungry. Then they will nibble my ears unt