JER FALCON. Jll 



ms, and alternately stooping with such velo- 

 ty that their motion through the air produced a 

 loud rustling noise. They thrust their claws 

 within an inch or two of my head."* Their food 

 is both the small animals and sea-fowl in their 

 vicinity, but they also make more extended excur- 

 sions inland, where the grouse and other game 

 form a most favourite and much sought after 

 repast, and in the fur countries they follow the 

 partial migrations of the ptarmigan. The stomachs 

 of the birds dissected by Mr Audubonf contained, 

 among other remains, those of fish, but these may 

 have been derived from the intestines of the sea- 

 fowl on which they had been preying, not from 

 fish taken by their own exertions. 



The form of the Jer Falcon is very strong and 

 muscular, the tail is rather longer in proportion 

 than that of the Perigrine, and the tarsi are fea- 

 thered for an inch and three quarters downwards. 

 The length of an adult seems to be from twenty to 

 twenty-four inches. The mature bird is nearly 

 white, spotted only above. Dr Richardson's de- 

 scription is, " The head is entirely white, and the 

 neck nearly so, there being only a few central brown 

 marks on the feathers of the nape. On the back 

 clove brown forms a pyriform blotch on each fea- 

 ther, and on the rump it is confined to a narrow 



* Northern Zoology, ii. p. 27. 

 t Richardson, I, 9 



