FALCONIDJE. IIIEUOFALCO SACEIl. 11 



HIEROFALCO SACER. 



Falco sacer, FORSTER, Phil. Trans. London, LXII, 1772, 423. 

 Falco fusca, FABRICIUS, Fauna Grocnlandica, 1780, p. 56. 

 Falco cinereus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 267. 

 Falco islandicus, EICH. & SWAIN. F. B. A. II, 1831, 27. 

 NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 51. 

 AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1835, 552 ; IV, 476, pi. cxcvi. 



" Syn. 1839, p. 15. 



" " " Birds of Am. I, 1840, 81, pi. xix. 



Falco labradora, AUD. B. of A. 1834, pi. cxcvi. 

 Falco gyrfalco, BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 4. 

 Falco candicans, BONAP. Cons. Av. 

 Hierofalco sacer, CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 89. 



VULG. American Gyrfalcon. The Greenland Falcon. American Jerfalcon. Iceland 

 Falcon. 



VERY little is with certainty known in regard to the geographical distribution, 

 nesting, and habits of this species. Like the preceding, it has, until very recently, 

 been confounded with one closely allied, and even now we can only infer, rather 

 than be said to know, all that is attributed to it. It is unquestionably specifically 

 distinct, in my opinion, from the H. islandicus ; and as no specimens of the latter 

 are known to have been obtained nearer this continent than Greenland, and as H. 

 sacer is not found in Europe, it is presumed, though possibly on insufficient grounds, 

 that one bird is exclusively American, and the other as exclusively confined to Ice- 

 land and the old continent, 1 The extreme northern range of the two birds makes 

 it by no means improbable that both are found throughout the entire Arctic circle, 

 and are not restricted to either continent. 



The H. sacer is rarely met with in the United States, and only in midwinter, but 

 is not unfrequent in the more northern regions of North America, and throughout 

 Greenland. Richardson speaks of it as a constant resident in the Hudson's Bay 

 territories. He supposed its extreme southern latitude to be 52 north. It was 

 observed by Captain Sabine on the west coast of Greenland, as far north as 74. Sir 

 John Richardson found a nest of this bird in June, 1821, built on a lofty precipice 

 on the borders of Point Lake, in latitude 65i. Mr. Audubon also speaks of finding 

 a nest of the present species near Bras-d'or in Labrador, placed on high rocks, fifty 

 feet from their summit, and more than one hundred from their base. It was com- 

 posed of sticks, sea-weeds, and mosses, about two feet in diameter, and almost flat. 

 I have in my possession the drawing of an egg from Labrador, which was taken by 

 Dr. James Trudeau, and is, so far as I am aware, the only authentic representation 

 of the egg of this species which has been obtained on our continent. It differs es- 

 sentially from all the European specimens I have seen, but corresponds very closely 



1 Since the above was written, the publication of a paper read before the Philadelphia Academy in 

 February, 1855, by Mr. Cassin, in part confirms my conjecture that these species are not restricted to 

 either continent. Certainly H. islandicus is not. At the same time, this accurate ornithologist appears 

 less confident of the distinctness of the two species, and is not without a suspicion of their identity. 



