EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. '6 



as well as Arctic Europe and Asia, is still a moot point. In 

 England, however, this species has certainly occurred on two 

 occasions, an adult bird having been killed in Sussex, and being 

 now in Mr. AVilliam Borrer's collection, while a young bird was 

 shot in Suffolk in October, 1867. 



In Scandinavia its breeding-season is much earlier than that 

 of its American and Arctic allies, and out of upwards of twenty 

 nests observed by the late John Wolley in West Finmark, the 

 eggs were nearly all taken towards the end of April. 



The nest is placed on the ledges of cliffs or on trees. 



The eggs of the Jer-Falcon are usually four in number, some- 

 times only three. The ground-colour is creamy- white ; but 

 usually the markings entirely conceal it from view. They are 

 closely freckled and spotted with reddish-brown and bricky-red. 

 Many eggs of this bird closely resemble Hobbys' eggs ; others 

 approximate more nearly to certain varieties of the Peregrine. 

 In a large series in my collection, however, I do not find that the 

 eggs are ever so dark as those of some other British Falcons, 

 and the markings are very evenly dispersed, sometimes becoming 

 confluent, at other times uniformly distributed over the entire 

 surface. Some specimens have the markings smoothly and evenly 

 laid on, giving them the appearance of ground-colour, which is 

 marbled and more intensified here and there. Another beautiful 

 variety is mottled all over with pale rosy-pink shell-markings, 

 intermixed with pale reddish-brown blotches and spots on a 

 creamy- white ground ; whilst others have the spots and blotches 

 mostly confined to the larger end of the egg, leaving the white 

 under-surface exposed to view. Jer-Falcons' eggs are slightly 

 more elongated than Peregrines', have a somewhat rougher shell, 

 and possess little gloss. Axis 2 - 35 — 22 inches, diam. 1*9 — 1'75. 



THE ICELAND FALCON. 



(Falco islanclicus .)* 



Plate I., Fig. 1. 

 The Iceland Falcon is a race of the true Jer-Falcons, distin- 

 guished from the Scandinavian form by its whiter head, streaked 



* Falco gyr/alco-candicatis—Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B., I., p. 16. Falco islandus— Saunders, 

 Manual, p. 333. Hierofalco islandicus—Shafpe, Handb. Brit. B., II., p. 194. 



