130 Bird- Nesting 



wrong, and may be a misprint, and probably should be 

 2.37x1.72 ; otherwise, he must have had the egg of some other 

 species when he took the measurements, as I never saw an 

 eg^g of the gray gyr falcon so long and narrow, and I have 

 handled close upon fifty specimens these past five years. 

 Four of the largest of thirty-six eggs before me measure 2.52- 

 xl.89, 2.50x1.87, 2.39x1.88, and 2.37x1.87, two of the smallest 

 measuring 2.25x1.80 and 2.25x1.78. In Iceland, the eggs are 

 laid from the middle of April to the middle of May. Bred 

 among the crags of the polar rocks, this fine bird is well 

 prepared for the fitful and furious blasts which occasionally 

 rage in countries near the ice, and though its neighboring- 

 prey might seem to be scanty, yet for this it is amply com- 

 pensated, as it surpasses all the falcons in its command of the 

 air. Though the distance from Iceland to those parts of Scot- 

 land and the isles where it is seen, is about five hundred miles, 

 this is said to be merely a morning's journey for this falcon, 

 from which it can easily return the same evening. When in 

 mature plumage, it is white, with bars and barb-shaped 

 dashes of brown, which become less and less with age, though 

 they are seldom or never lost. In Iceland this gyr falcon 

 makes its nest among the crags of the sea coast, and returns 

 year after year to the same nest. Sometimes it takes posses- 

 sion of an old nest of the raven, as the peregrine falcon does 

 in the north of England and Scotland. I remember seeing a 

 clutch of raven's eggs that were taken from a nest in a clift' 

 at Sedbei'g, in Yorkshire, England and also a clutch of eggs 

 of the peregrine falcon, that were taken a month later from 

 the same raven's nest. 



The raven breeds around the shores of Lakes Winnipeg and 

 Manitoba, around Hudson's Bay, and at Thunder Cape, Lake 

 Superior. The nests are usually built in the clifis, and diffi- 

 cult to get at. Should any of my readers ever come across a 

 nest of the raven, peregrine or golden eagle, built in a cliff", 

 they should never attempt to descend to the nest by the aid 

 of ropes, without the assistance of others, or they might meet 

 the sad fate of poor John Gaboon, who lost his life last April 



