32 BIKDS OF ICELAND 



white bars — underneath white, with dark grey stripes 

 on the throat, spots on the breast, bars on the flanks 

 and thighs. Length: males 20 to 22 inches, wing 

 14 to 14 J inches; females 23 to 26 inches, wing 14J 

 to 161 inches. In young birds the upper parts are 

 brownish grey and almost uniform in tint, with the 

 merest indications of the dark and light barring. The 

 dark grey spots and bars of the underparts of the adult 

 are represented by longitudinal streaks of sooty brown, 

 annually decreasing in area till they become the dark 

 grey spots and bars of maturity. The prevailing colour 

 of the upper parts of the Iceland Falcon, then, is grey 

 in maturity, brown-grey in adolescence ; the correspond- 

 ing colour of the Greenland species being white, more 

 or less streaked and spotted above with brown-grey. 

 The Icelander, after the first moult, has the thighs and 

 flanks barred ; the Greenlander never carries a bar on 

 the underparts, but instead pyriform spots, compara- 

 tively small in mature birds, the stalk of the pear 

 pointing to the beak. 



This bird has borne from very early times a high 

 reputation amongst falconers. Falcons from Iceland 

 were especially valued. They are mentioned from this 

 point of view in the Sagas (e.g. in Saga Hakonar 

 Gamla, which can be found in the Bisku2m Sogur, a 

 collection published in Copenhagen in 1858 and 

 onwards). We learn that AstriSr, the daughter of 

 'Olafr Tryggvason, owned a Falcon from Iceland; 

 King Hdkon the Elder sent several as choice presents 

 to the Sultan at Tunis ; and so forth. Iceland Falcons 



