480 APPENDIX. 



Falco rusticolus obsoletus. Black Gijrfalcon. 



Prevailing color dark plumbeous or plumbeous brown, sometimes 

 practically uniform, save on the under tail-coverts, which are said to 

 be always sjDotted with whitish, but usually with more or less whitish 

 markings on the lower parts, where, however, the darker color inva- 

 riably exceeds the lighter in extent, — excepting on the throats of a 

 few specimens. 



Tlie Black Gyrfalcon is supposed to breed only in Labrador. It 

 is a rather rare winter, visitor to New England, where it has been 

 taken at the following localities : — 



Maine : Near Calais, one or two specimens said to be in the col- 

 lection of Mr. George A. Boardman (Brewer, Proc. Bost. Soc Nat. 

 Hist., Vol. XIX, 1878, p. 306) ; Rockland, November, 1886, a 

 female now in my collection (Brewster, Auk, Vol. IV, January, 

 1887, p. 75) ; Eagle Island, about March 22, 1888, a female also in 

 my collection and not hitherto recorded. 



New Hampshire : Twelve miles from IMilford, January, 1891 (?), 

 a bird mounted by Mr. James P. Melzer (Melzer, Orn. and Ool., 

 Vol. XVI, No. 5, May, 1891, p. 79). 



Massachusetts : Breed's Island, Boston Harbor, October, 1876, 

 (Cory, Bull. N. O. C, Vol. II, 1877, p. 27) ; a specimen now in 

 the collection of the Field Columbian Museum at Chicago, Illinois ; 

 Ipswich, November 7, 1874, a male in the Essex County Collection 

 of the Peabody Academy (Purdie, ibid., Vol. IV, 1879, p. 189) ; 

 Ipswich, March, 1893, a female mounted by Mr. N. Vickary, and 

 not hitherto recorded. I have not seen the specimen last named 

 nor do I know where it now is, but Mr. Vickary was kind enough 

 to send me a careful description, with some of its feathers, at the 

 time it was in his hands. 



Rhode Island: Conanicut Island (near Newport), November 22, 

 1891, a female now in the Museum of the Natural History Society 

 of Newport (A. O'D. Taylor, Auk, Vol. IX, July, 1892, pp. 300, 

 301). 



