BIRDS OF NEW YORK 97 



obtained by Ernest Watts for the author's collection, original of the 

 painting by Fuertes, plate 50. 



The Gyrfalcon'is the largest, swiftest and most powerful of our falcons 

 though, according to Saunders, inferior to the Peregrine in dash and spirit. 

 It preys upon waterfowl, ptarmigan, grouse and hares. The Canandaigua 

 specimen mentioned above was feasting on a large Plymouth rock hen 

 when shot, and its gullet and stomach were filled with the breast meat 

 of the fowl, with scarcely a trace of bone and feathers. These birds are 

 very destructive to grouse, pheasants and rabbits but as they are so 

 uncommon in New York, they can not become a great menace to game 

 coverts except in rare instances. 



Falco rusticolus obsoletus Gmelin 

 Black Gyrfalcon 



Plate 50 



Falco obsoletus Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1 788. I. i : 268 



Falco rusticolus obsoletus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 164. 

 No. 3S4b 



obsoletus, Lat., dusky 



Distinguishing marks. Uniformly dusky or slaty fuscous, without 

 bars above except obscure broken bars on the tail and with few and incon- 

 spicuous streaks below. Size the same as the common Gyrfalcon. 



This dark phase of the Gyrfalcon breeds in northern Ungava and 

 Labrador, and spreads southward in winter as far as Ontario, New York 

 and Rhode Island. Four New York specimens are known, the first from 

 Flushing, L. I., fall of 1875, mounted by J. Wallace and now in the collection 

 of George A. Boardman. See Eerier N. O. C. Bui. 6: 126 and 247. Through 

 a misunderstanding this bird was reported as from Westchester county. 

 See Rod and Gun, 7: 153. Westchester co., winter of 1879, Sage, Bishop 

 & Bliss, Birds of Conn. State Geol. & Nat. Hist. Surv. bul. 20, p. 83, 1913. 

 The third specimen from this State was killed near Lake Ontario in 

 Monroe county, October 1890, mounted at Ward's Natural Science 

 Establishment, and now in the State Museum at Albany. See Marshall, 



7 



