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



Ridgway"^, to an intermediate race, which he designates as 

 Hierofalco gyrfalcoy var. sacer f. 



In June 1870, Professor Newton was so good as to show 

 me some specimens of these Falcons which had been obtained 

 in North-western America, and had been sent to him for ex- 

 amination by Professor Baird; and I then made a memo- 

 randum respecting them to the following effect : — 



No. 51689 %. Adult male, from Yukon, at the mouth of 



the Porcupine River. 

 No. 43144^ §. Adult female, taken, with four eggs, at 



Fort Anderson, May 1864. 

 No. 1558. Adult female, taken, with two eggs, at Fort 



Anderson. 

 No. 1410. Immature male, from Nulato River. 



The adult birds appeared to resemble the adult Grey 

 Falcon of Iceland, except that they were less clear and bright 

 in the light grey cross-barring on the back and upper sur- 

 face ; they had somewhat broader dark grey cross bars than 



of a Jerfalcon, which, on the authority of Professor Baird, he refers to 

 H. gyrfalco. {Vide Proc. Califoruian Society of Sciences, March 14, 

 1874). - 



* Vide Land Birds of North America, vol. iii. p. 117. 



t Mr. Kidgway supposes this Falcon to he the " Speckled Partridge- 

 Hawk," from Hudson's Bay, which Forster described in the Phil, 

 Trans, for 1772, p. 382, and which he there calls Falco sacer ; hut, even 

 if this identification be admitted as correct, which does not seem alto- 

 gether certain, there is an objection to the specific name being so applied, 

 as it was evidently proposed by Forster under the belief that the bird he 

 was describing came so close to the " Sacre of Brisson " * « # " said by 

 Belon to come from Tartary and Russia," that it might safely be assigned 

 the same name in a latinized form ; and as this was entirely a misappre- 

 hension, the 11th rule for nomenclature, issued by the British Associa- 

 tion, seems to me to be a sufficient authority for dropping Forster's spe- 

 cific name, as calculated to cause a confusion between the Jerfalcon now 

 under consideration and the very distinct " Sacre of Brisson," the Saker 

 Falcon of the Old World. 



X For a detailed description of this specimen vide Ridgway, I. c. p. 115. 

 § This specimen is also described by Mr. Ridgway, at p. 116. 



