FALCOXID.E—FALCONTN.E: FALCONS. 



6G5 



Fig. 457. — A 

 (From Michelet.) 



' noble " Falcon. 



the 3d, the 1st ratlier shorter than 3d, and alone decidedly einarginate on inner web. Adult 

 ^ 9- White — wiiite as a Snowy Owl. Head and all under parts iininacuLite white, or with 



only a few dark touches on the top and sides of the head, — - 



and on the tianks and flags. Back, wings, and tail white, 

 more or less profusely marked with dusky (slaty-black) bars, 

 crescents, arrow-heads, or transverse spots; amount of these 

 dark markings about as in an average Snowy Owl. Bill 

 bluisli, darker at tip ; cere, edges of eyelids, and feet chrome- 

 yellow ; claws blue-black ; iris brown. Bill and claws finally 

 growing whitish. Length of ^ about 2'.2.00 ; wing 14.00- 

 15.00; tail 9.00; bill 0.9.5; tarsus 2.40; middle toe with- 

 out claw 2.00. 9: Length about 23.50; wing 15.50-10.50 ; 

 tail 10.00. Young: Not very diflereut from tlie adults; 

 prevailing color still white, but more heavily marked with 

 dark brown, tending to lengthwise spots on both upper and 

 under parts. The e.\-treme form in the subgenus Hierofalco, 

 seeming to be specifically distinct from the ne.xt, in general 

 recognizable at a glance, though some puzzling specimens 

 occur; of circumpolar distribution, breeding only in very high 

 latitudes: range in America from Greenland to Behring Sea, 

 S. irregularly in winter: in the U. S. (except Alaska) only 

 known to reach nortliern Maine ; in Europe reachiug Ice- 

 land frequently, tiie British Islands rarely. Nest on cliffs; 

 eggs 3-4, about 2.30 X I -HO, with the whitish ground so 

 heavily overlaid witli ditferent shades of reddish-brown as to 

 ap])ear almost uniformly of that color, with some b(dder spots of darker brown. It is unfortu- 

 nate ttiat the white j)olar Gyrfalcon was first described from and named for the island of Ice- 

 land, which is not its home ; but so it happened, and the rectification of synonymy, which was 



in a state of dire confusion in the subgenus 

 Hierofalco, involves an entirely " new deal " 

 in the names of the two species (one of them 

 with two subspecies) which were correctly 

 discriminated under other names in the 2d- 

 4th eds. of the Key: see Auk, Apr. 18!?5, 

 )i[). 184-188. The principal synonymy of 

 the present species is: Gerfdiilt yyrfalco 

 Biiiss. i. 1760, i>. 370, pi. 30, fig. 2. F. 



Fio. 4r,8. — Pereprine Falcon, greatly reduced. (From ixhoulus BlU'NN. Oril. Bor. 17(j4, J). 2, in- 

 Tenney, alter Wilson.) eluding this species and the uext one. F. 



islfoulus Fahric. Kij. Groenl. 1780, p. 58, proi>erly restricted to the present sin^cies. /•'. 

 gyrfulco Boon. Tabl. 1783, ]>. 20, based on V\. Enliim. No. 440. F. tslandiis, vars. tilbus and 

 macitlatus G.M. 1788, j). 271, and /•'. candicans, ]>. 275. the latter being tlie name which most 

 authors have used, including mystdf. F. iskmdicKs Lath. Ind. Orn. i, I7!»0, p. '.^2 \ figured 

 uinler this name by AtniliON, folio pi. ;l(i(j, o<'tavo pi. 11>. F. (jrn'tdnndicns TruT. Sy.>it. 

 Nat. i, 1800, ]i. 147. Fulco {llieroffdcu) gijrfidco s-.w. atudiani.< Kiuiav. in Baiud, Bhf.w. 

 and Kii)(;\v. Hist. N. .\. B. iii. l.-'74. ]>. 108. llieroftdco holhoclli Siiaupk. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 

 i. b-71. pi |;{_,,pp(r ti-. .mly. It is Kid.iw. No. 412, C.rKS. No. :>{)]. \. O. V. N-. :r,.'{. 

 K (H.) rusti'eoliis. (LiniiMMn Latin, iin-aiiin^ a countryman, a rustic; tin- ju-tiprr Lat. 

 w'MiliI be ntricotii, fmni nts, i;rnitivc nais, antl valeir, to inhabit ; inmla, an inhabitant.) 

 Linn;eus uses a like tnrm of tlic wnnl fur the Won.icock, which he called Sioltijxix rusticolu 



