THE PRAIRIE FALCON. 523 



General Range. — Arctic regions including southern Greenland ; south rarely 

 in winter to southern borders of United States. 



Range in Washington. — Casual — one recent record^of occurrence in winter. 



Authorities. — ? Townsend, Narrative, 1839, 331 (Faico hycinalisj. Merrill, 

 Auk, \'ol. NI\'. Oct. 1897, p. 352 (Spokane). 



LINN.^JUS called him nisticolns. a C(juntrynian, but he is no rustic, — a 

 viking, rather, ruling the ptarmigans and lemmings of tlie Arctic coasts with 

 a rod of iron. Both because of its large size and sustained prowess, this bird 

 has been long recognized as the ranking officer of the genus Falco; and in the 

 palmy days of falconry birds of this breed imported from Ultima Thule 

 brought fancy prices. As we go further back in histor_\- we find the prowess 

 of the Falcon still more highly venerated. Among the Greeks strength was the 

 chief attribute of (li\"inity, and the falcon was liicrax. the might\- one (whence 

 hicros, sacred, and liicrcus, priest), the fit emblem of di\'inity so concei\'ed. 



Enjoying in its \-arious races a circumpolar range, the G}'rfalcon winters 

 for the most part upon its northern hunting grounds: but now and then a 

 straggler appears within our borders. Of its occurrence in British Columbia, 

 Mr. Brooks says'': "A regular winter visitant west of the Cascades. Young 

 birds are sometimes almost dark enough for obsciirns. and adults light enough 

 for the Iceland form. The flight of this Falcon is as a rule rather slow com- 

 pared with that of other large Falc()ns, but when in full pursuit of a duck it 

 gets up a tremendous velocity and can turn and twist almost as cjuickly as a 

 Goshawk. In ordinaryflight the wing-stroke is much shorter than aPeregrine's, 

 and the bird when going straight awav appears to be ho\-ering like a Kestrel." 



No. 212. 



PRAIRIE FALCON. 



A. O. U. No. 355. Falco mexicanus Schlegel. 



Synonyms. — Mexic.xn F.-xlcon. American Lanner Faecox. 



Description. — Adults: Upperparts pale grayish brown, the feathers usually 

 more or less tinged with rusty and chiefly bordered with pale clay-color, or buffy 

 gray anteriorly, or pale bluish gray posteriorly; color of head more nearly 

 uniform, but streaked with dusky; occiput and hind-neck much lighter, the latter 

 sometimes nearly pure white : outer webs of primaries not spotted but edged with 

 paler, and inner webs indented or obscurely spotted with white : secondaries white- 

 or fulvous-spotted on outer webs : axillars plain brown ; wing-lining chiefly white, 

 more or less spotted with brown ; tail chiefly brownish gray tipped with white, 

 but more or less indented and barred on inner webs with whitish ; underparts 



.-\uk. \"o]. XVII.. Apr. 1900, p. 105. 



