GREENLAND FALCON. 353 



recognition of three distinct species, one of which — the 

 true Jer Falcon of the Scandinavian Peninsula — has been 

 ascertained -to have occurred in the British Isles on two 

 occasions. 



Under the names of Gyr and Jer Falcon, I have records 

 of ten occurrences in this county : four of them (three certainly 

 and one probably) are referable to the species under con- 

 sideration and the remaining six to the Iceland Falcon ; and 

 it is satisfactory to know that the specific names of some of 

 them, which would otherwise have been open to grave doubt,, 

 have been determined by the highest authorities. 



The first occurrence of this species of which we have any 

 record was in 1837, and was communicated to Neville Wood's 

 "Naturalist " (1837, pp. 53 and 163), by Thomas Allis of York, 

 of whose accounts the following is an abstract : — A fine adult 

 specimen of the Jer Falcon was shot at Sutton-upon-Derwent, 

 by a man named Storthwaite, on 13th March 1837, and 

 passed into Allis's possession. It was shot in each wing, 

 but not wounded in the body. Like most birds of the family 

 when in captivity, it sulked and entirely refused all food 

 for the first four days ; it was still alive on the 26th April, 

 and seemed likely to do well. That this was a Greenland 

 Falcon we have high authority in John Hancock, the author 

 who was the first to point out the distinction between this and 

 the Iceland Falcon. In a letter to Mr. Thompson (" Natural 

 History of Ireland " : Birds, i. p. 32), Hancock says, " I 

 know of one instance of the capture of F. Granlandicus in 

 this country ; it was a mature bird, and was in the collection 

 of Mr. Ellis [Allis] of York, up to the time of his collection 

 being sold ; it was obtained in Yorkshire, and, to the best of 

 my recollection, was shot about the year 1836." 



Thomas Allis's Report on Yorkshire Birds (1844), contains 

 the following reference to this specimen : — 



Falco islandicus. — Gyr Falcon — The only recorded Yorkshire speci- 

 men is a fine adult bird that was shot on 13th March 1837, at Sutton- 

 on-Derwent, and came into my owti possession. A shot had struck it 

 at the extremity of each wing without injuring the body, and it lived 

 with me for several months, entirely refusing food for the first three 

 or four days. 



VOL. I. 2 A 



