38 FALCONID.i\ 



been presumed to have their respective homes mainly, though 

 not, as will presently be seen, exclusively, in Greenland and 

 Iceland. In 1838, Mr. Hancock brought the matter before 

 the British Association, at its meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; 

 but in the paper which he then read (Annals of Natural 

 History, ii. p. 241), he was led, as Brelim before him had 

 been, into the error of confounding the adult of the Green- 

 land bird with the young, and of describing this latter as 

 being brown like the immature Icelander. It was the con- 

 fusion arising from this misconception which most probably 

 hindered his views from meeting with more general accept- 

 ance ; and it was not until 1854 that he was able to correct 

 himself, but in that year he announced (Ann. and Mag. 

 of Nat. Hist. 2nd Ser. xiii. p. 110) that the Greenland 

 Falcon was never in any stage dark-coloured, but invariably 

 light-coloured from its youth. This opinion was grounded 

 upon repeated observations of living birds, backed by the 

 inspection of more than one hundred and fifty prepared 

 specimens, and a careful comparison of no less than seventy. 

 Mr. Hancock's latter paper seems to have been for some 

 time much overlooked by ornithologists, and hence the 

 erroneous notions previously existing still retain their sway 

 in some quarters. Of late, however, Professor Schlegel, 

 Mr. Gurney and Mr. Gould, among others, have adopted 

 Mr. Hancock's present opinions, which it may be added are 

 strictly in accordance with the traditiois of falconers, and 

 to him, therefore, belongs the credit of first discovering and 

 making public the exact state of the case. 



It is to be observed that nearly all the true Falcons, as 

 can be proved by keeping them in captivity, assume the 

 plumage of maturity at their first moult, which usually 

 takes place when the birds are from nine to fifteen months 

 old ; and, moreover, that the feathers of the young are gene- 

 rally characterized by longitudinal markings, while those of 

 the adult have most of the markings disposed transversely. 

 After this one change, there is no good reason for sui">posing 

 that the colours of the plumage materially alter at any suc- 

 ceeding moult. The feathers become faded or bleached with 



