Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 581 



Hopedalc^ Labrador^ whicli is preserved iu the Norwich 

 Museum : — Wiug 1G"65 inches, tarsus 2'4, middle toe s. u. 

 2' 2. A presumed male iu the British Museum measures — • 

 "wing 15 inches, tarsus 2*2, middle toe s. u. 2*15. 



I propose now to refer refer to H. gyrfalco, the " Nor- 

 wegian Falcon^' of British naturalists, and best known in 

 this country from Scandinavian examples, some of which have 

 been the originals of the various figures of this Falcon which 

 have from time to time been published. Of these, two im- 

 portant plates have appeared somewhat recently — one in Mr. 

 Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' the other in the late Mr. 

 Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain,^ in which latter work this 

 species was afforded a place rather for comparison with the 

 nearly allied Iceland Falcon than as a British species, no 

 authentic instance being on record, so far as I am aware, 

 of the occurrence of the true H. gyrfalco in the British 

 Islands, 



As regards the distribution of this Falcon in the Old 

 World, detailed particulars of what has been hitherto ascer- 

 tained will be found in the article on this species in Mr. 

 Dresser's work already referred to ; and to the information on 

 this head there given I have only one fact to add, viz. that in 

 the autumn of 1875 I was enabled, by the courtesy of Mr. 

 Sharpe, to examine a nearly adult female of H. gyrfalco 

 which belonged to Mr. Hume, and had been sent to Mr. 

 Sharpe for examination, it having been supposed to be an 

 immature example of "Falco hendersoni'' and alluded to as 

 such in ' Stray Feathers,' vol. ii. p. 530. This specimen, 

 which I agree with Mr. Sharpe in referring to H. gyrfalco, 

 was obtained at Yarkand by the late Dr. Stoliczka on May 

 15, 1874. 



Such of the Falcons of the genus Hierofalco as inhabit the 

 regions of North America lying to the west of Greenland 

 and Labrador, and are not referable either to H. labradorus 

 or to H. candicans, have been the subject of some difference 

 of opinion as to whether they should be re.ferred to H. gyr- 

 falco*, to H. islandus, or, as has beeii suggested by Mr. 



* Mr. W. H. Dall records the presence in some of the Aleutian Islands 

 SER. IV. VOL. VI. 2r 



