GREENLAND FALCON. 45 



already laid down, not dependent upon age. The young of 

 the Greenland Falcon is more or less white, like the adult ; 

 but the old birds always have the upper surface to a greater 

 or less extent adorned with heart-shaped spots or transverse 

 blotches of black or very dark slate-colour, and these some- 

 times approach each other so nearly as to form bauds. The 

 head is pure white or only slightly streaked. Beneath, the 

 markings are less numerous than above, and the under tail- 

 coverts are spotless. 



In the first plumage, the dark markings are commonly of 

 a paler colour, being blackish-brown of a deeper or lighter 

 shade ; and these, on the body-feathers generally, instead of 

 being transverse or heart-shaped, are longitudinal or tear- 

 shaped. When they take this last form, the birds are of 

 singular beauty. In both young and old the flight-feathers 

 of the wings and tail are ordinarily barred, but the latter are 

 often entirely white. A very large series of examples may 

 be compared without finding two which are exactly similar, 

 and there can be little doubt that the bird which is sparsely 

 marked in its youth will be as sparsely marked when old ; 

 while, on the other hand, the closely-marked young will 

 remain as closely marked when adult — a rule which holds 

 equally good in the Iceland Falcon, where the dark or light 

 complexion is permanent. The cere, orbits and feet are of 

 a pale yellow in the adult Greenland Falcon, and light bluish- 

 grey in the young. The irides, as are those of all the true 

 Falcons (excejjt as a rare individual peculiarity), are dark. 



The specimen here figured measured twenty-three inches 

 from the point of the beak to the end of the tail ; the wing, 

 from the carpal joint to the lip, is about fifteen inches. 



