GYR-FALCON. S9 



perseverance. Dr. Ricliardson says, " In tlie middle of 

 June 1821, a pair of these birds attacked me as I was climb- 

 ing in tlie vicinity of their nest, which was built on a lofty 

 precipice on the borders of Point Lake, in latitude 65^°. 

 They flew in circles, uttering loud and harsh screams, and 

 alternately stooping with such velocity, that their motion 

 through the air produced a loud rushing noise : they struck 

 their claws within an inch or two of my head. I endea- 

 voured by keeping the barrel of my gun close to my cheek, 

 and suddenly elevating its muzzle when they were in the act 

 of striking, to ascertain whether they had the power of in- 

 stantaneously changing the direction of their rapid course, 

 and found that they invariably rose above the obstacle with 

 the quickness of thought, showing equal acuteness of vision 

 and power of motion. Although their flight was much more 

 rapid, they bore considerable resemblance to the Snowy 

 Owl." 



This species appears but very seldom in the southern 

 parts of the British Islands. Dr. Edward Moore of Ply- 

 mouth has recorded a notice of one taken in Devonshire so 

 lately as the year 1834. Dr. Borlase, in his History of 

 Cornwall, refers to the occurrence of one at Helston. The 

 bird from which the representation here given was made, was 

 killed in Pembrokeshire, on the estate of the Earl of Caw- 

 dor, by whom the specimen was presented to the Zoological 

 Society. In Ireland, as I learn from Mr. Thompson, the 

 only notice of the occurrence of the Gyr-Falcon is the follow- 

 ing from the MS. of the late Mr. Templeton : " In 1803 

 I received the skin of a bird of this species, which had been 

 shot at Randalston, in the county of Antrim." 



In a Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk, by 

 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, published in the fifteenth 

 volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, mention 



