298 Mr. J. H. Guriiey's Notts on 



ill the British Museum two Pcrej^rines, an adult male and a 

 nearly adult female^ obtained on the North-west American 

 coast during the arctic voyage of Captain Collinson, which 

 are certainly very darkly plumaged birds about the head and 

 shoulders, but, I think, not more so than some that I have 

 seen from other localities ; and the male is certainly not darker 

 than one from Hudson's Bay, which is also preserved in the 

 British Museum, aud with which I have compared it. 



tinctly tingod with buff ou the jugulum aud belly; chiu aud throat im- 

 maculate : whole jugulum marlied with heavy tear-shaped spots of blaclv, 

 these narrower or more streak-like towards the throat ; breast, sides, aud 

 tlanks heayily barred with black, the bars ayeraging '25 of an iuch iu 

 width (broader on flauks) ; lower breast and belly marked with trans- 

 verse, somewhat cordatt;, spots of the same ; tibiae, aual region, and 

 crissum more narrowly and very regularly barred with slaty black, the 

 bars about "15 of an iuch in breadth,- the interspaces decidedly wider ; 

 axillaries and lining of the Aving marked with very sharply defined bars 

 of duslvy slate and uearly pure white, of nearly equal width (about '20 to 

 •25 of an iuch), the dusky bars on the axillaries connected along the shaft. 

 A distinct dusky malar patch, or " moustache," occupying the whole of 

 the suborbital and malar regions (except the anterior apex of the latter), 

 and extending 1'25 inch or more below and behind the eye ; behind this 

 a whitish space, streaked with dusky, extending from the fore neck up- 

 ward towards the ears. Bill dusky, bluish to^\•ards the base, the base of 

 the mandible yellowish ; 'iris brown;' legs and feet yellow. Wiugl4"7o 

 inches, tail 8, culmen (chord) "US, tarsus 2*15, middle toe 2'16. Second 

 quill longest, first and third equal ; only the first with inner web eiuar- 

 ginated. 



" Hemnrks, The coloration of this specimen agrees in the minutest 

 particulars with Wolf'.s figures of Falco f/i/rfalco iu ' Ootheca WoUeyana,' 

 and is - altogether distinct from that of any specimen of F. 2>eref/rim(s 

 proper or any of its alleged races with which I have been able to compare 

 it. This is the reason why, after a somewhat hurried examinatiou, T 

 referred it to the Norwegian Gyrfalcou. It is a very singular fact that 

 the young plumage (upon which F. pealei was based) is so ^ery niucli like 

 the correspouding plumage of F. ohsoletus (F. lahradora, Aud.) as to be 

 distinguishable only by the generic characters, the latter being a true 

 Gyrfalcou {Heirvfalco). It should be remarked that the type specimen 

 of F. pealei is the supposed 'younger female' oi Falco poli/af/rus, as de- 

 scribed by Mr. Cassin on p. 123 of ' Illustrations of the Birds of California, 

 Texas,' &c., and is also the original of the darker-coloured of the two spe- 

 cimens figured iu the plate accompanying the description in question." 



