JER-FALCON. 
Falco TIslandicus, LATHAM. 
‘© Gyr falco, Liyy.zvs, 
Gyrfalco candicans, FLEMING. 
Faleo—To cut with a bill or hook. Islandicus—Of, or belonging 
to Iceland, 
I am compelled to say ‘not proven,’ with reference to the 
arguments of Mr. John Hancock, read before the British 
Association at Newcastle, with a view to establish the sup- 
position that two species are confounded together in the one 
bird before us. It may, I think, be depended upon that the 
white plumage is the token of advanced age, as the dusky 
brown is of youth. The indentations on the bill are un- 
questionably alterable, and as to the specific difference 
endeavoured to be established from the bars on the tail, both 
the varieties have been found in one and the same individual 
specimen. 
This noble bird may well be regarded as the personification 
of the ‘beau ideal’ of the true Falcons, at the head of which 
it pre-eminently stands. Its courageous spirit, together with 
its rarity even in its native countries, and the difficulty of 
procuring it, made it highly estimated in the days of falconry, 
as it was qualified and disposed to fly at the larger kinds 
of the ‘game’ of those days, such as herons and cranes. Its 
education was indeed difficult, but it was sure to repay the 
patience and perseverance required for training it for the 
aristocratic pastime, so highly thought of in the olden times. 
I am indebted to J. McIntosh, Esq., of Milton Abbey, 
Dorsetshire, for a quaint old treatise on the subject of Hawking, 
as one of other former ‘countrey contentments,’ but I am 
obliged, against my will, to omit much which I should be glad, 
if space permitted, to insert. My thanks however are not the 
less due to him, and other obliging correspondents. 
