FALCONS 243 



354b. Falco rusticolus ohsoletus (Gmel.). Black Gyrfal- 

 con; Labrador Gyrfalcon. 



Plumage : " Prevailing color dark plumbeous or plumbeous brown, some- 

 times practically uniform, save on the under tail coverts, which are said to 

 be always spotted with whitish, but usually with more or less whitish mark- 

 ings on the lower parts, where, however, the darker color invariably exceeds 

 the lighter in extent, — excepting on the throats of a few specimens. (Brew- 

 ster, Land and Game Birds of N. E. p. 480). Measurements like preceding. 



Geog. Dist. — Labrador ; in winter rarely south to Maine, and New York. 



County Records.— Cumberland ; Mr. E. P. Carman of Bridgton has a 

 specimen which was shot at Spurwink near Cape Elizabeth, about the middle 

 of September, 1887, (specimen rather recently seen by 0. W. K.). Knox; 

 Mr. Rackliff took a specimen on the day before Thanksgiving, 1886, which 

 was sent to F. B. Webster and is most certainly the same bird recorded by 

 Brewster, (Auk. 4, p. 75) as taken near Rockland; Mr. Brewster has another 

 which was taken at Eagle Island, about March 22, 1888, (Land and Game 

 Birds of N. E. 2nd. ed., p. 480). Oxford ; one shot in 1892 or 1893 and now 

 in the collection of Harry Lane, (Nash) ; one recently shot at East Water- 

 ford, by Mr. Doughty is being mounted by J. Waldo Nash, (Adams, Three 

 Kingdoms, March, 1898). Penobscot; a very dark individual taken at Alton, 

 October 20, 1905, (Allen, Auk 1908, p. 234). 



The nesting habits and food of this species are not different 



from the others. It seems to be the only one having a distinct 



habitat not markedly overlapped by other forms, while the 



other three recognized forms "mix into each others territory" 



more or less. They occur casually in Maine, and probably 



nearly every one secured is eventually recorded. 



Subgenus RYNCHODON Nitzsch. 



356. Falco peregrinus anatum (Bonap.). Duck Hawk; 

 Peregrine; Great-footed Hawk; Wandering Falcon; Bullet 

 Hawk. 



Plumage of adults : above bluish slate ; the tail white tipped and faintly 

 barred with dark ; primaries barred with ochraceous ; breast creamy buff ; 

 remaining under parts cream buff, barred and spotted with black. Immature 

 plumage : above fuscous, the feathers margined with ochraceous ; black 

 almost moustache like markings below the eye ; tail above barred with gray- 

 ish and below with rusty buff ; under parts ochraceous buff, streaked, spotted 

 or barred with black. Wing of male 11.00 to 13.00 ; wing of female 13.00 to 

 15.00 ; tarsus of male 1.75 ; tarsus of female 2.10. 



