(JYR FALCON, 157 



tained by him, and of vvhic Ii I have seen one, were 

 young of thf previous season, which had just completed 

 their moult. 



The dimensions of the male were : " Length 22^ 

 inches, extent of wings 49 ; bill along the ridge lj\, 

 along the edge H ; tarsus 2." 



Those of the female : " Length 24 inches, extent of 

 wings 48; bill 1^%; tarsus 2." 



Progress towards maturity — At the second 

 moult, the general colour of the plumage is brownish- 

 grey, of a uniform tint, but all the feathei-s are more or 

 less variegated with whitish spots at the end and along 

 the margins ; the quills and tail-feathers are barred 

 with grey. By degrees the white markings enlarge, 

 leaving only a central spot or streak of grey on the 

 feathers, and the dark bars on the quills and tail di- 

 minish, until by the fifth or sixth year the bird assumes 

 the appearance described above as characterizing the 

 adult. The progress towards maturity, however, as 

 here traced, is merely stated from analogy, for although 

 I have seen birds in different stages, I have not ob- 

 served the changes of an individual. 



Rkmarks — The IceLind or Gyr Falcon can be re- 

 garded only as an occasional visitant, for it does not 

 appear that it has been observed to breed in any part 

 of Britain ; nor, I believe, have adult or white indivi- 

 duals been seen there. Cuvier, in his Regne Animal, 

 has instituted a separate genus, Hierofalco, for this bird, 

 on the ground that its bill " has merely a festoon like 

 that of the ignoble birds of prey ;" but the toothlike 



