20 GYR FALCON— " SPECKLED PARTRIDGE HAWK." 



and if you have skins from Paris, you will find, I am sure, young white birds marked 

 " tres adiilte" and old blue birds "Jeiine." It is the same with specimens from 

 Copenhagen and elsewhere. Now it being understood that, as I have said above, 

 the age of the bird may be detected from the color and, still better, from the 

 directions of the markings, it will then be evident that in a large series you have 

 what at first sight appears to be almost every step from the nearly pure white 

 phase — which some consider, though I do not, to be the F. arcticus of Holboll — to 

 the dark colored F. labradora of Audubon, and it- is not easy to see how they can 

 be distinguished. Easy it is, however. Sort out all the specimens with white bills 

 and claws (white often flesh color), and then you will have F. candicans. Then 

 turn all the other specimens on their bellies, and lay in one heap those that have 

 the tops of their heads 710I darker than their backs, and on another those that have 

 the tops of their heads not lighter than their backs. The first of these heaps will 

 be F. islandicus, and the second F. Gyr-falco. You will perhaps have some five 

 jjer cent, that this will not reach, and this remainder will require further comparison ; 

 but I am much mistaken if the ' moustache ' will not enable you to distribute the 

 balance. . . . The adults will be from the countries where each one breeds, 

 and the young from those to which they wander (generally in the autumn or 

 winter)." 



Reeks in his notes " On the Birds of Newfoundland," says, 

 " This is the ' White Hawk' of the Newfoundland settlers. It is 

 pretty regular in its periodical migrations, especially in the fall of 

 the year. I was not successful in obtaining specimens ; I do not 

 think it breeds in any jaart of Newfoundland." 



Mr. Wm. Couper,- naturalist, of Montreal, informs me he 

 obtained one specimen of this bird shot at St. Foy in i860. It 

 was in its first year's plumage. This specimen is now in the 

 collection of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, D.C. Mr. 

 Couper says he is convinced that Islandicus is the adult bird. 



The following is a description sent me by Mr. Anderson of 

 the bird figured on the accompanying plate : 



Adult. The ground color white ; head and upper part 

 of neck creamy white, gradually blending into pure white ; on 

 lower part of neck behind, narrow longitudinal pencillings of 

 brown ; along the back feathers and over the wings, elongated 

 spots of brown, changing into a broader and saggital form towards 

 the extremities of the primary feathers of the wings, and on the 



