APPENDIX. 479 



another record — of a bird captured near Portland, Maine, Octo- 

 ber 13, 1877, and referred to F. islandicus {=z rusticolus) by Mr. 

 Brown (Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., April, 1882). This speci- 

 men is, I believe, in the collection of the Portland Natural History 

 Society. I have not yet seen it, but if it has been correctly identi- 

 fied it is the only New England example of rusticolus of which I 

 have any present knowledge. 



Falco rusticolus GYRFAiiCO. Gyrfalcon. 



Generally similar to F. rusticolus, but darker colored, especially 

 above ; the top of head with dusky prevailing, often uniformly 

 dusky ; the lighter tail-bands bluish gray (never conspicuously white), 

 and usually narrower than the dusky interspaces, often interrupted 

 and inconspicuous ; remaining upper parts dusky, often nearly uni- 

 form, but usually more or less diversified with paler ; lower parts with 

 white prevailing, or at least equaling the dusky marking in extent. 



If the Gyrfalcons which visit New England were to be ranked in 

 the order of the relative frequency of their occurrence, this sub- 

 species would stand next after F. r. ohsoletus. It has been taken 

 in Maine : at the Katahdin Iron Works, Piscataquis County, Decem- 

 ber, 1876 (Purdie, Bull. N. O. C, Vol. IV, 1879, p. 188). In 

 Massachusetts : at Stowe in 1881 (Brewster, ibid., Vol. VIII, July, 

 1883, p. 184, where the specimen was wrongly referred to ohso- 

 letus) ; at Northampton, by Mr. E. O. Damon, in February, 1880 

 (H. G. Vennor, Forest and Stream, Vol. XIV, No. 11, April 15, 

 1880, p. 204) ; and at Melrose, January 1, 1891 (this specimen has 

 been recorded as a '' Black Gyrfalcon " shot " near " Lynn — Tufts, 

 Orn. and Ool., Vol. XVI, No. 4, April, 1891, p. 61). In Rhode 

 Island : near Providence, in the winter of 1864-65 (Allen, Am. 

 Nat., Vol. Ill, 1869, p. 513, where the specimen was fii*st recorded 

 under the name Falco sacer) ; at Point Judith, October 11, 1883 

 (Jencks, Auk, Vol. I, January, 1884, p. 94 ; also editorial in Random 

 Notes Nat. Hist., Vol. I, No. 1, January, 1884, p. 6). 



The Maine specimen is now in the museum of the Brown Univer- 

 sity at Providence, Rhode Island ; the Point Judith bird is in the 

 New England collection of the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 and the Stowe and Melrose specimens are in my collection. The 

 Northampton bird, which is still in Mr. Damon's possession, is said 

 to have been identified by Mr. Ridgway (from a photograph) as a 

 typical F. sacer (^gyrfalco), and when I saw it some eight or ten 

 years ago I also considered it as belonging to this form. 



