580 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



volume as synonymous with H. yyrfalco ; but Mr. Dresser 

 has shown, I think satisfactorily, in the P. Z. S. for 1875, 

 p. 114, that it is specifically, or, at the least, subspecifically, 

 distinct. An additional article on this subject, from the pen 

 of Mr. Dresser, will be found in Rowley^s ' Ornithological 

 Miscellany,' vol. i. p. 185, where two figures are given of 

 this Falcon in different stages of plumage. These are, so far 

 as I am aware, the only published representations of this 

 species, with the exception of Audubon's plate and of a very 

 good photograph, which forms plate 4 of Vennor's ' Birds of 

 Prey of Canada,' taken from one of two specimens killed in 

 the neighbourhood of Montreal (where, however, this Falcon 

 appears to be extremely rare), and preserved in the Museum 

 of that city. Mr. Ridgway, in the ' Bulletin ' of the Nuttall 

 Ornithological Club, vol. v. p. 93, has fully described these 

 specimens and also a third obtained subsequently, and pre- 

 sumably also in Canada ; and he has there suggested that this 

 is the Falcon described by Pennant in his ' Arctic Zoology,' 

 vol. ii. p. 208, under the title of the '^ Plain Falcon," and 

 that it is consequently identical with Falco ohsoletus of 

 Gmelin. Pennant gives Hudson's Bay as the habitat of his 

 "Plain Falcon;" and his description has evidently been 

 taken from a very dark-coloured Jerfalcon, Avliich may 

 very probably have been a specimen of H. labradorus (to 

 adopt Mr. Dresser's spelling of that specific name) ; but as 

 this is hardly a matter of absolute certainty, I think it safer 

 to retain for the Labrador Falcon the specific name of 

 labradorus, to which it is undoubtedly entitled. 



Mr. Ridgway has also referred to this Falcon in the ' Land 

 Birds of North America,' vol. iii. p. 118, and, besides giving 

 Labrador as its habitat, states that it is also found to the 

 " south and westward " of Labrador " in winter, and on the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay ;" he likewise describes a sj)ecimen 

 taken at or near Quebec. 



With the above exceptions, I am not aware of tmy record 

 of this Jerfalcon having been obtained elsewhere than in 

 Labrador. I may add the following note of the dimensions 

 of a specimen of this Falcon, presumably a female, from 



