334 ICELAND FALCON. 



It also frequents the southern portion of Greenland, where a paler 

 form is distinguished by Mr. Sharpe as F. Jiolhoelli. In Labrador 

 the representative species is a very dark brown bird, and easily 

 recognizable. The fells of Norway and Sweden are occupied by a 

 smaller form, identical in pattern of plumage, but somewhat greyer 

 and darker with more defined moustache, and this Scandinavian bird 

 is the true F. gyrfalco of Linnaeus ; yet with immature examples, and 

 sometimes with adults, it is in many cases difficult to draw the line 

 of demarcation, and I have known an old female, shot from her nest 

 in a pine-tree on the Dovre-fjeld, pronounced to be a ' typical Ice- 

 lander' by an eminent authority. In the collection of Mr. W. 

 Borrer is a bird shot in Sussex in January 1845, and originally 

 recorded by ISIr. Ellman as immature, but which has been identified 

 by Mr. Gurney as a fully adult F. gyrfako ; to this form, also, Mr. 

 Seebohm refers a young example obtained at Orford, Suffolk, in 

 October 1867. In Northern Siberia yet two more 'species,' which 

 are, in my opinion, identical with the Iceland form, have been dis- 

 tinguished by some of the Russian ornithologists ; while in Alaska 

 the Grey Falcons have been referred by Mr. Gurney to F. islandus, 

 and subsequently to F. gyrfako, or even to possible hybrids between 

 F. gyrfalco and F. Jiolhoelli. 



In Iceland the eggs, 3-4 in number, and similar in size and 

 appearance to those of the Greenland Falcon, are deposited on the 

 ledge of a cliff, or on the former abode of some other bird, fre- 

 quently a Raven ; in Norway, according to Prof CoUett, an old nest 

 in a tall fir-tree is generally selected ; while in Lapland most of the 

 eggs obtained by Wolley were from rocks. Th"^. food consists of 

 water-fowl and other birds — largely of various Arctic species of 

 Grouse, which are captured on the wing. All these Northern 

 Falcons were formerly esteemed for hawking, as they still are 

 by the Mongol races ; their style of flight is magnificent — much 

 swifter than that of the Peregrine — and both are deadly ' footers ' 

 {i.e. tenacious of grip), but they lack spirit and dash. 



The adult is represented by the front figure in the engraving ; 

 the prevailing colour of the upper parts being brownish-grey on a 

 creamy ground, while the under parts are of a purer white ; the bill 

 is horn-colour, the legs and feet are bluish. The young bird (in 

 the rear) is ashy-brown above, while the under parts are marked 

 with dark drop-shaped spots. Length of the female 25 in., of the 

 male 21 in. There is great individual variation; moreover the Ice- 

 land and the Greenland Falcons interbreed at times, and a remark- 

 able hybrid belonging to Col. E. Delme-Radcliffe is in my care. 



