ASIATIC GYRFALCON 15 



so blended that the sound is a rattling scream. The sound is pro- 

 duced only when danger is sighted." 



Field marks. — This bird can be recognized as a falcon by its shape 

 and manner of flight, as explained under the preceding race, but as a 

 gyrfalcon only by its size. It is much darker than candicans in all 

 plumages, sometimes appearing almost wholly dark brown, or almost 

 black in certain lights. 



Winter. — The winter range of the black gyrfalcon is much the same 

 as that of the white gyrfalcon, though it ranges more widely and 

 somewhat farther south into the United States. Many individuals, 

 mainly adults, remain on or near their breeding grounds all winter. 

 Dr. Nelson (1887) writes: "Along the Lower Yukon and Kuskoquim 

 Rivers in winter it is numerous, and finds an abundance of Ptarmigan, 

 upon which it preys. At this season it is frequently seen perching on a 

 stout branch of a tree overhanging the river bank, and I have seen it 

 on several occasions allow a train of dog-sledges to pass within 40 or 

 50 yards, only noticing their presence by slowly turning its head." 



FALCO RUSTICOLUS URALENSIS (Srwertzov and Menzbier) 



ASIATIC GYRFALCON 



HABITS 



This subspecies was described from specimens from the Ural Moun- 

 tains in eastern Russia. Its range extends through Siberia to Kam- 

 chatka, to the Commander Islands, to St. Lawrence Island, St. 

 George Island, and probably other islands in Bering Sea, and to 

 northern Alaska. A female in my collection, in fresh juvenal plumage, 

 was taken at Deering, Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, on August 1, 1914; 

 it was probably hatched in that vicinity, as it was still accompanied 

 by its parent. A breeding female, with bare incubation spaces, 

 was taken at Muller Bay, Alaska, on May 24, 1903. That this race 

 migrates, or wanders occasionally, down the Pacific coast of North 

 America is illustrated by an adult specimen taken in December 1896 

 near Spokane, Wash. 



D. Bernard Bull, who has had about 3 years of experience with 

 this gyrfalcon on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska, has sent me some 

 interesting notes on it; he says of its haunts and distribution: "The 

 Asiatic gyrfalcon, like some other falcons, seems to prefer country 

 that is open and free from timber for hunting, and where ledges of 

 a rocky cliff or a high dirt bank are available for a nesting site. Such 

 conditions prevail at Goodnews Bay and adjacent territory on the 

 Bering Sea coast of Alaska, where this bird breeds and is partly, if 

 not wholly, resident. I am confident also that it may be found 

 nesting on Nunivak Island, at Nelson Island, and in the hills 15 miles 

 east of the village of Hooper Bay. At these three places, although I 



