GREENLAND FALCON. 33 1 



Gyr-Falcon. Hierofalco gyrfalco (Linn.). 



After considerable controversy about the specific validity of 

 the three gyr-falcons, it is generally acknowledged that the 

 Gyr-Falcon proper, a bird of northern Europe, Greenland and 

 Arctic America, which occasionally wanders southward, is 

 distinct, and has claim to be included as an exceedingly rare 

 straggler to Britain. One was killed in Sussex in 1845 and 

 another in Suffolk in 1867. Doubt is expressed about a 

 Norfolk bird, reported in 1883, and one said to have been 

 killed in Essex is a dark-coloured Peregrine. Indeed, this 

 bird, with its dark slate head and back, barred with paler 

 slate, and its black moustachial stripe, is not unlike a large 

 Peregrine. The under parts are white, spotted with blackish 

 grey, the spots forming streaks. The bill is blue, the cere, 

 eye-rims and feet yellow, the irides very dark brown. The young 

 closely resemble those of the Iceland Falcon. Length, 19 to 

 22 ins. Wing, 14 to 15 ins. Tarsus, 2*4 ins. 



Iceland Falcon. Hierofalco isla?idus (Briinn,). 



Greenland Falcon. Hierofalco islandus ca?idicans 



(Gmel.). 



The two northern Gyr- or Jer-Falcons (Plate 144), formerly 

 considered distinct, are now classed as geographical races of 

 one species. Systematists have wrestled long with the various 

 forms of these variable birds, disputing about the salient 

 characters, and even now many good authorities disagree 

 The Iceland Falcon breeds in Iceland, Jan Mayen, southern 

 Greenland and Western Siberia, and, at any rate, so far as 

 Iceland is concerned, seldom wanders southward. It is, how- 

 ever, an occasional visitor to the Shetlands, Orkneys and 

 Outer Hebrides, and more exceptionally to England, Scotland 



