Use patch.patch() when checking for patch availability.
The test is closer to what we want to know. It also makes sense when you deal with patched versions of patch() as most people do under win32.
#!/bin/sh
hg init
echo This is file a1 > a
hg add a
hg commit -m "commit #0" -d "1000000 0"
echo This is file b1 > b
hg add b
hg commit -m "commit #1" -d "1000000 0"
hg update 0
echo This is file c1 > c
hg add c
hg commit -m "commit #2" -d "1000000 0"
hg merge 1
rm b
echo This is file c22 > c
hg commit -m "commit #3" -d "1000000 0"