diff --git a/spacy/tests/spans/test_merge.py b/spacy/tests/spans/test_merge.py
index 9b792d80b..f96d532cd 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/spans/test_merge.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/spans/test_merge.py
@@ -52,6 +52,13 @@ def test_np_merges(EN):
         merged = tokens.merge(start, end, label, lemma, label)
         assert merged != None, (start, end, label, lemma) 
 
+
+    tokens = EN(u'One test with entities like New York City so the ents list is not void')
+
+    for span in tokens.ents:
+        merged = span.merge()
+        assert merged != None, (span.start, span.end, span.label_, span.lemma_) 
+
 @pytest.mark.models
 def test_entity_merge(EN):
     tokens = EN(u'Stewart Lee is a stand up comedian who lives in England and loves Joe Pasquale.\n')
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/span.pyx b/spacy/tokens/span.pyx
index c55de3c3e..e645c1a6f 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/span.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/span.pyx
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ cdef class Span:
             token (Token):
                 The newly merged token.
         """
-        self.doc.merge(self.start_char, self.end_char, *args, **attributes)
+        return self.doc.merge(self.start_char, self.end_char, *args, **attributes)
 
     def similarity(self, other):
         '''Make a semantic similarity estimate. The default estimate is cosine