THE PRAIRIE FALCON. 523 
General Range.—Arctic regions including southern Greenland ; south rarely 
in winter to southern borders of United States. 
Range in Washington.—Casual—one recent record of occurrence in winter. 
Authorities.— ? Townsend, Narrative, 1839, 331 (Falco hyemalis). Merrill, 
Auk, Vol. XIV. Oct. 1897, p. 352 (Spokane). 
LINNALUS called him rusticolus, a countryman, but he is no rustic,—a 
viking, rather, ruling the ptarmigans and lemmings of the Arctic coasts with 
a rod of iron. Both because of its large size and sustained prowess, this bird 
has been long recognized as the ranking officer of the genus Falco; and in the 
palmy. days of falconry birds of this breed imported from Ultima ‘Thule 
brought fancy prices. As we go further back in history we find the prowess 
of the Falcon still more highly venerated. Among the Greeks strength was the 
chief attribute of divinity, and the falcon was hierax, the mighty one (whence 
hicros, sacred, and hiereus, priest), the fit emblem of divinity so conceived. 
Enjoying in its various races a circumpolar range, the Gyrfalcon winters 
for the most part upon its northern hunting grounds; but now and then a 
straggler appears within our borders. Of its occurrence in British Columbia, 
Mr. Brooks says*: “A regular winter visitant west of the Cascades. Young 
birds are sometimes almost dark enough for obscurus, and adults light enough 
for the Iceland form. ‘The flight of this Falcon is as a rule rather slow com- 
pared with that of other large Falcons, but when in full pursuit of a duck it 
gets up a tremendous velocity and can turn and twist almost as quickly as a 
Goshawk. In ordinary flight the wing-stroke is much shorter than a Peregrine’s, 
and the bird when going straight away appears to be hovering like a Kestrel.” 
No. 212. 
PRAIRIE, FALCON: 
A. O. U. No. 355. Falco mexicanus Schlegel. 
Synonyms.— Mexican Fancon. AMERICAN LANNER FALCON. 
Description.—4Adults: Upperparts pale grayish brown, the feathers usually 
more or less tinged with rusty and chiefly bordered with pale clay-color, or buffy 
gray anteriorly, or pale bluish gray posteriorly; color of head more nearly 
uniform, but streaked with dusky; occiput and hind-neck much lighter, the latter 
sometimes nearly pure white; outer webs of primaries not spotted but edged with 
paler, and inner webs indented or obscurely spotted with white; secondaries white- 
or fulvous-spotted on outer webs; axillars plain brown; wing-lining chiefly white, 
more or less spotted with brown; tail chiefly brownish gray tipped with white, 
but more or less indented and barred on inner webs with whitish; underparts 
a. Auk, Vol. XVIE., Apr. 1900, p. 105. 
