344 On the Ornithology of Wilts [Falconide}. 
colour have arisen the many conflicting opinions as to the identity 
of the (so-called) two species. They are natives of the most 
northern latitudes, and though nowhere numerous, have, from their 
excessive value, often tempted falconers to their capture on the in- 
hospitable shores of Greenland, Iceland, Lapland, and Norway: so 
highly were they prized in bygone days, that the king of Denmark 
reserved for his own use all that were found in his dominions, and 
sent his falconer annually to Iceland to obtain a fresh supply ; and 
so rigid was this game law, that the penalty of death was the 
result of an infringement of it, by destroying one of the royal 
birds. In this country, and in more modern days, no less than 
£1000 have been given for a well-trained cast (or couple) of these 
Falcons, which were used for flying at the larger kinds of game— 
herons, cranes, wild geese, &e. Much doubt has existed as to the 
origin of the specific appellation “Gyr;” it is by some said to be 
derived from the German word “ geyer,” a vulture, from a sup- 
posed resemblance in this splendid Falcon to that ignoble bird, 
or from its being of a Vulture size; but others, apparently with 
more reason, attribute it to the wide gyrations which this species, 
above all others, makes before its stoop, which on all hands is 
allowed to be remarkably grand, rapid, and daring. It is very 
seldom that the Gyr-Faleon makes its appearance in England, 
though in Scotland it is not very infrequent: but I place it among 
the birds that have occurred in Wiltshire without the least hesi- 
tation, on the authority of Mr. Benjamin Hayward, of Easterton, 
than whom no one in the county has devoted more attention to, 
or has had greater experience of, the whole family Falconide, as 
an out-door observer and accurate Naturalist. From him I learn 
that he saw this fine and, when once known, unmistakeable species 
in the immediate neighbourhood of Cliffe Hall, at a place called 
Ramscliffe, on the 9th December, 1842, but at the time, having 
never seen or heard of the Gyr-Falcon, he mistook it for an 
albino variety of the Peregrine, and marvelled at its beauty and 
size; farther enquiry, however, proved to him beyond a doubt that 
it was a genuine Icelander. 
“Peregrine Falcon,” (Fulco peregrinus.) Hitherto I have re- 
