of Naumann's ' Vogel Deutschlands/ 45 



47), first decidedly distinguished between the two Falcons, which 



are since presumed to have their respective homes mainly in 



Greenland and Iceland. In 1838 Mr. John Hancock brought 



the matter before the British Association at their meeting at 



Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; but in the paper which he then read 



('Ann. Nat. Hist.' ii. pp.241 et seqq., and ' Naturalist,' iv. pp. 38, 



39), that gentleman was led, as Brehm before him had been, 



into the error of confounding the adult of the Greenland bird 



with the young, and of describing this latter as brow^n, like 



the immature Iceland. It was not until 1854 that he was 



enabled to set this misconception right ; but in the eai-ly part of 



that year he announced (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. xiii. 



pp. 110-112) that the Greenland form vms never in any state dark-, 



but invariably light-coloured from its youth. This opinion was 



grounded upon repeated observations of living birds in his own 



possession, as well as in that of the Zoological Society, backed by the 



inspection of upw^ards of one hundred and fifty specimens *, and 



the careful comparison of no less than seventy individuals. Mr. 



Hancock's latter paper seems to have been somewhat ov'cvlooked 



by ornithologists, and hence the confusion which previously 



existed has never been entirely dispelled. But we think there 



can be little doubt of the correctness of his present views, which, 



it may be added, are strictly in accordance with the traditions 



of falconers ; and to him, therefore, belongs the credit of first 



laying the exact state of the case clearly before the public f. 



It is to be observed that the Greenland and Iceland Falcons, 

 like the Peregrine, and nearly all the rest of the group J, assume 

 the plumage of maturity at the. first moult, which usually takes 



* It is only fair to Professor Blasius to mentiou that he states that he 

 has inspected the same or even a larger number of skins (' Nauraannia,' 

 1857, p. 224), but he says nothing about live birds ; and we believe Mr. 

 Hancock has since seen many more. 



t We have been informed that Professor Schlegel, than whom there 

 cannot be a higher authority on this subject, has lately expressed his 

 opinion that Mr. Hancock, in the view he takes, is perfectly right. 



X The most noticeable exceptions apparently are Faico sacer, Gmelin, 

 and probably one or two other allied species; but in these the plumage of 

 both young and old would seem to be nearly alike. See F. H. Salvin 

 and Brodrick's ' Falconry in the British Isles,' pp. 96 et seqq. 



