180 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 
Falcon of Mexico and the western United States, has the head 
brown. G. hypoleuca, of Australia, is grey and black, with barred 
tail, and dusky shaft-streaks on the whitish lower parts; G. 
subnigra of the same country being almost plain blackish-brown. 
Much controversy has arisen concerning the noble Arctic 
Falcons (HMierofaleo), especially those occupying Siberia and 
Northern America; it seems, however, most probable that three grey 
forms inhabit the latter and two the former region. In 1. candi- 
cans, the Greenland Falcon, the prevailing colour is white at all 
ages, transversely marked above and spotted below with blackish ; 
it occurs in North Greenland, Spitsbergen, Arctic Siberia and 
America, the Commander Islands, and Amur-land. H. gyrfalco, 
the Gyr- or Jer-Falcon * of Arctic America, Greenland, Scandinavia, 
Northern Russia, and possibly North Asia, is like a large Pere- 
grine Falcon, but is greyer above and whiter below; H. islandus, 
the Iceland Falcon, of South Greenland, Iceland, North Siberia, 
and Arctic America is paler, having the whitish head streaked 
with dusky. AZ. /abradorus, of Labrador, is dark throughout. All 
these species move southwards towards winter, the first three 
visiting Britain and the Greenland Falcon even Southern France. 
They are still valued in Falconry; but, though more powerful, 
they lack the spirit and dash of the Peregrine Falcon. The 
food consists of lemmings, grouse, sea-fowl, and the like; the nest 
of sticks, ined with softer materials, is placed on rocks or trees, 
and contains three or four whitish eggs mottled or completely 
covered with yellowish or cinnamon markings. 
Fam. V. Pandionidae.—This group is especially remarkable 
for the reversible outer toe—recalling that of the Owls, the want 
of an aftershaft, and the long closely-feathered tibiae. The strong 
short beak is arched and decidedly hooked; the powerful feet are 
roughly scaled; the toes nearly equal, with no connecting mem- 
branes, but with spicules beneath; the claws sharp, curved, and 
rounded ; the wings long ; the tail comparatively short. The other 
structural details are as in the Falconidae. The downy young are 
dusky, varied with rufous ; the lower breast, the abdomen, a central 
stripe down the back, and several on the head, being white. 
Pandion haliaétus, the Osprey or Fish-Hawk, nearly cosmo- 
1 Professor Newton and other writers seem to consider that the true Gyr-Falcon 
only inhabits Scandinavia and H. candicans Greenland and Arctic America ; but this 
does not preclude occurrences elsewhere. Cf. however, Jbis, 1889, pp. 143-144. 
