96 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Falco rusticolus gyrfalco (Linnaeus; 

 Gyrfalcon 



Plate so 



Falco gyrfalco Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:91 



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



No. 354a 



falco, Lat., a falcon, from falx, a sickle from the shape of the bill; rusticolus, Lat., 

 inhabiting the country; gyrfalco, probably=hierofalco, divine or noble falcon 



Description. Upper parts brownish gray or fuscous, slightly marked 

 with buffy white, the whitish markings in the form of streaks, and edgings 

 on the neck and head, but narrow bars on the tail coverts and tail, and 

 the back only slightly marked. Under parts heavily streaked with fuscous 

 and dull white. Heavy blackish " mustaches." Bill bluish horn color, 

 nearly black at tip; legs bluish gray, claws black; iris brown. As in all 

 species of gyrfalcons, the immature birds have a tendency to buffy white 

 in the light markings of the upper parts, and these markings are rather 

 in streakings than in bars. 



Length 23-24 inches, extent 50-55 ; wing 13.50-16; tail 8.5-10; tarsus 

 2.4, feathered one-half way down on front and sides; middle toe 2.2; 

 weight 51/4 pounds. 



This Gyrfalcon breeds in the Arctic regions from Ellesmere Land east- 

 ward to Franz- Josef Land, and wanders southward in winter to Minnesota, 

 New York and Rhode Island. The New York records are as follows : 



Long Island, winter of 1856, 9 immature, mounted by John Akhurst, 

 now in collection Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn, N. Y. Law- 

 rence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 8280. Dutcher, Auk, 10: 274; Chapman, 

 Birds of N. Y., etc., p. 41, no. 171 ; and Braislin, Birds of L. I., p. 69, no. 182, 

 reported asFalco islandus. 



Pond Quogue, L. I., 1877, 0* adult, shot by William Lane, mounted 

 by Knoess of Riverhead, N. Y., secured from John Wallace by Robert 

 Lawrence and presented to the Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Robert Lawrence, 

 N. O. C. Bui., 5:117, reported as Falco sacer. 



Rome, N. Y., winter of 1895, 2 killed, H. L. Bowers. 



Auburn, N. Y., March 29, 1902, 9 immature, shot by Edwin Redman, 

 mounted by L. O. Ashbury. Specimen now in State Museum. 



Canandaigua, N. Y., Dec. 25, 1905, 9 immature, shot by Duel, 



