232 EEMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMA^". 



each feather being margined with dusky white ; the 

 under surface of the same dusky white, marked thickly 

 with longitudinal blotches of the dark colour of the 

 upper parts ; the under tail coverts and thighs having 

 long streaks, which, in the adult plumage, are changed 

 into transverse bars, similar, though not so distinct, as 

 those in the peregrine. The colour of the irides is dark 

 hazel. 



GrREENLAND FalCON. 



This is the most beautiful of all the family. It ap- 

 pears to be more widely distributed than its closely allied 

 neighbour, as it is found in all the northern regions of 

 the old and new world. It occasionally visits these 

 islands, where, from the whiteness of its plumage, it is 

 very easily recognised. Many notices of its appearance 

 are found in different works on ornithology. A beau- 

 tiful adult bird, presented by Sir J. Johnston, Bart., 

 to the Scarborough Museum, was shot during November 

 1854, near Harkness in Yorkshire. It is a finely marked 

 old bird ; in size and proportions it is similar to the 

 Icelanders, and even in colour some of the adult birds 

 approach very closely to each other, viz. the darkest of 

 the Greenland and the lightest of the Iceland birds. 

 The young birds of this species are sometimes as white 

 as their parents, differing only from them in the colour 

 and shape of the markings. The legs, cere, &c. in this 

 species are, when young, of a light bluish lead colour, 

 changing into yellow with age, but of a lighter tint than 

 in the Iceland birds. These birds, like all the falcons, 

 assume their perfect plumage at the first moult, and do 

 not, as has been supposed, become lighter in colour each 

 successive year. 



