of Naumann's 'Vogel Deutschlands.' 49 



Professor Schlegel's better-known descriptions were drawn up. 

 With all due deference to this last-named gentleman (the Arch- 

 Falconer^ as Prince Bonaparte dubbed him), we consider that in 

 his various works he has not been so successful in his diagnosis 

 of this race as our countryman, whose words we have above 

 quoted. But we are bound to say that we have not been able 

 to satisfy ourselves that some of the differences indicated by Mr. 

 Hoy, especially those taken from the relative proportions of the 

 Gyrfalcon and the Icelander, are constant ; and if they be not 

 constant, of course the sooner they are eliminated from the list 

 of characteristic distinctions the better. As far as we have ob- 

 served, the most noticeable differences are only of shade. The 

 Norwegian birds are more darkly coloured than the Icelandic ; 

 and in the former, however light may be the prevailing hue of 

 the other parts, there is generally a deeply black mystacial or, 

 rather, malar patch sometimes extended upwards over the tem- 

 ples to the top of the head, which we do not remember ever to 

 have seen in a true native either of Iceland, Greenland, or 

 Labrador. 



Not many generations ago, sailors always believed that treaties 

 signified nothing within twenty degrees of the equator. Natu- 

 ralists have hardly left off acting on the principle that localities 

 may be safely disregarded within the same distance of the Arctic 

 Circle. Hence can be traced an abundant crop of errors relating 

 to the geographical range of northern birds; and when, as in 

 the present case, the races under consideration have been very 

 commonly confounded with one another, it is an especially diffi- 

 cult task to unravel the tangled web, and to state plainly what 

 may be taken as known of their respective distribution. 



The Greenland Falcon seems to have its proper home in the 

 inhospitable regions which enclose Baffin's Bay and extend to 

 the westward. From this tract adult birds seldom wander to 

 other lands, though the young ones in autumn and winter — but 

 only at those seasons — occur regularly in Iceland, and not unfre- 

 quently in the United States, the British Islands, and even in 

 countries still more remote from the place of their birth. 

 They are, no doubt, driven away by their parents, as is com- 

 monly the habit of Birds of prey, and follow the large flocks of 



VOL. IV. E 



