FALCO GYRFALCO. 87 



FALCO GYRFALCO, Linnseus. 



GYRFALCON. 



0. W. tab. C. 



[Mr. WoUey was, I believe, the first naturalist able to give from his own 

 observation any particulars of the breedino; of this noble bird. I cannot add 

 to the full details which are contained in the following notes. The curious 

 fact that the Gyrfalcon, like so many other Accipitres, adapts itself to circum- 

 stances, breeding in trees when rocks are wanting near places that aboimd 

 with food for its offspring, as is the case in the district of Hanhi-jarwi-maa, 

 will not escape the student's notice, and will furnish, I think, another good 

 warning against too hasty generalizations with regard to the habits of a bird 

 or other animal. It was not until the fourth summer of Mr. WoUey's resi- 

 dence in Lapland that he became acquainted with this fact, and then, as 

 his remarks show (§ 210), he was justly sceptical concerning it at first. I 

 must, however, call the reader's attention to an en-or in two of Mr. WoUey's 

 Sale Catalogues. In that for the year 1856, he stated (p. 8) that the Gyr- 

 falcon was " the only species or race of the Great Falcon which occurs in Lap- 

 land;" and again in that for the year 1858, he said (p. 10) that "in Scandi- 

 navia the forms found in Greenland and Iceland never seem to occxir." Each 

 of these assertions requires qualification ; for I believe that both Falco candt'cans 

 and F. tslandicits are occasionally met with in Norway or Sweden, though I 

 am not aware that either has been kno^vn to breed in the Scandinavian penin- 

 sula. It is therefore necessary to add to each passage, " except as accidental 

 visitors," or words to that effect. I have also here to express my thanks to Mr. 

 Wolf for a beautifid picture, which he was good enough to paint for me from 

 one of the birds to be mentioned hereafter (§ 215). A reduced copy of it, 

 executed by Mr. Jury imder the artist's immediate superintendence, embel- 

 lishes this work (tab. C), and, I think, cannot fail to afford pleasure to na- 

 tm-alists, as, excepting Herr W. von Wright's figure in the ' Tidskrift for 

 Jjigare ' (I. pi. xii. p. 353), it is the only representation of the adult female 

 Gyrfalcon that has been published. Of its accuracy I need say nothing, for 

 that is guaranteed by the painter's name.] 



§ 192. Four.— West Finmark, 7 May, 1854. " J. W. ?>e." 



O. W. tab. viii. fig. 1. 



On my way from Hammerfest, I intended to visit the Falcons' 

 nests of which I had heard from Lassi ; but when I got to Kau- 

 tokeino I was hesitating, for several reasons, whether or not to spare 

 the time that was necessary : the snow might go any day, and 

 I should not get back to Muonioniska; and I had some cause for 

 being uncertain as to the truth of his account. However, I had the 

 good luck to find his drany, who said that his master had the day 



