342 GREENLAND FALCON. 



Breconshire, Sussex, Devon and Cornwall. Ireland, as might be 

 expected from its geographical position, has not been unfavoured : 

 Mr. R. J. Ussher informs me that nineteen examples have been 

 identified, and that on eight occasions birds which seemed to be 

 pairs were noticed, while the records for April are twice as numerous 

 as for any other month, though the winter of 1883-84 afforded 

 eight. There are also eleven Irish records which cannot definitely 

 be referred to this or the next species. 



It may be doubted whether the true Greenland Falcon nests to 

 the south of the Arctic circle. It was obtained on Jan Mayen 

 Island, and is probably the species which has been seen on Spits- 

 bergen, as well as Novaya Zemlya ; while its head-quarters are in 

 the northern portion of the country whence it takes its name. 

 Mr. Chichester Hart, of H.M.S. 'Discovery,' saw a pair nesting on 

 Grinnell Land, in 79° 41' N. lat. ; while westward a 'white' Falcon 

 can be traced through Arctic America to Alaska, across Bering 

 Straits to Kamchatka and Arctic Siberia, and, in spring, to the 

 Amur. ]Mr. Barrett-Hamilton brought from Bering Island a white 

 bird which seems to be F. candicaus. No example has been 

 obtained on Franz Josef Land. In the British Museum are 

 specimens, presented by Mr. J. G. Millais, from Akureyri and 

 Reykjavik in Iceland ; and from that island were brought (probably 

 in transit) the 'white falcons' which were accepted as tribute or 

 gifts worthy of royalty in the Middle Ages. Greenland Falcons 

 have visited Norway, Sweden and Heligoland, and have even 

 ranged as far south as the French side of the Pyrenees in winter. 



The eggs, sometimes 4 in number, are pale orange-red in 

 ground-colour, w'ith darker mottlings and spots : measurements 2 '2 

 by I '8 in. ; they are placed on a bare ledge of rock, or on the old 

 nest of some other bird. In the north the food of this species consists 

 of Ptarmigan and Willow-Grouse, lemmings and other mammals. 



The adult is chiefly white, with blackish streaks and elongated 

 spots on the upper parts ; the under parts being pure white or only 

 slightly spotted, and the flanks devoid of bars ; but the individual 

 variation is very great. In the first plumage the markings are 

 brownish and very broad above, but drop-shaped below, the tail 

 being more or less barred. The adult dress is assumed at the first 

 complete moult, and never varies afterwards. Length of the male 

 21 in. ; wing 14-5 in. ; female 23 in. ; wing 16 in. Cere, bill, legs 

 and feet pale yellow in the adult ; light bluish-grey in the young. 

 In this, as in all true Falcons, the irides are dark hazel : — not 

 yellow, as in the short-winged Hawks. 



