IS GYR FALCON— "SPECKLED PARTRIDGE HAWK." 



The Gyr-Falcon does not appear to have been met with in 

 any of its varieties by Wilson, as it is not enumerated amongst 

 the birds of the United States either by him or Bonaparte. It 

 is a strictly boreal species, being found northward to the Arctic 

 Sea, and probably, according to Richardson, " in the most north- 

 ern of the Georgian Islands." It is well known to frequent 

 Iceland ; and Sabine met with it on the west coast of Greenland, 

 as high as latitude 74^ Richardson states that it is common on 

 the " Barren Grounds," where it preys on the Ptarmigan, also 

 Plover, Ducks, and Geese, and that it sometimes in winter follows 

 the southward flight of these. The southern limit of its range, 

 however, is by no means clearly known. Mr. Anderson's speci- 

 men here figured, the two in the Montreal Museum, and the other 

 seen by the hunter who shot the first mentioned, are the only 

 known occurrences of this rare bird in Canada. It has been 

 occasionally met with in the New England .States, and Coues 

 states that it is a " rare winter visitant, and only accidental as far 

 south as Massachusetts." It has also been observed in Maine. 

 One specimen of the speckled plumage was taken near Providence 

 Rhode Island, by Mr. Newton Dexter, during the winter of 1864 

 and 1865 ; but Allen, who records this, adds, " Its occurrence so 

 far south appears to be wholly accidental." 



Accordino- to some of our best ornitholoeists there are two 

 species of the Gyr-Falcon : the Falco candicaHs, and the Falco 

 Islandieiis. Others again unite these two under the Falco 

 Sacer, of Forster. In a paper entitled " Notes on some of the 

 rarer Birds of Massachusetts," Mr. J. A. Allen says, " The sus- 

 picion many authors have had that the Falco candicans and F. 

 Islajidicus were but birds of the same species in dift'erent stages 

 of plumage, my own examination of the specimens of both in the 

 Museum of the Boston .Soc. of Nat. Hist, and elsewhere, has led 

 me to believe is actually the fact. Sabine, so long ago as 18 19, 

 I think has fully shown this in his remarks on F. Islandiciis in his 

 ' Memoire on the Birds of Greenland.' According to the late 

 lamented Mr. Cassin, Sacer is the specific name which has priority 

 for this species." The F. Labradora of Audubon is simply the 



